Dense sampling of ethnic groups within African countries reveals fine-scale genetic structure and extensive historical admixture

Bird, Nancy, Ormond, Louise, Awah, Paschal, Caldwell, Elizabeth F., Connell, Bruce, Elamin, Mohamed, Fadlelmola, Faisal M., Fomine, Forka Leypey Matthew, López, Saioa, MacEachern, Scott, Moñino, Yves, Morris, Sam, Näsänen-Gilmore, Pieta, Nketsia, Nana Kobina V., Veeramah, Krishna, Weale, Michael E., Zeitlyn, David, Thomas, Mark G., Bradman, Neil and Hellenthal, Garrett (2023) Dense sampling of ethnic groups within African countries reveals fine-scale genetic structure and extensive historical admixture. Science Advances, 9 (13). ISSN 2375-2548

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Abstract

Previous studies have highlighted how African genomes have been shaped by a complex series of historical events. Despite this, genome-wide data have only been obtained from a small proportion of present-day ethnolinguistic groups. By analyzing new autosomal genetic variation data of 1333 individuals from over 150 ethnic groups from Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sudan, we demonstrate a previously underappreciated fine-scale level of genetic structure within these countries, for example, correlating with historical polities in western Cameroon. By comparing genetic variation patterns among populations, we infer that many northern Cameroonian and Sudanese groups share genetic links with multiple geographically disparate populations, likely resulting from long-distance migrations. In Ghana and Nigeria, we infer signatures of intermixing dated to over 2000 years ago, corresponding to reports of environmental transformations possibly related to climate change. We also infer recent intermixing signals in multiple African populations, including Congolese, that likely relate to the expansions of Bantu language–speaking peoples.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2023 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	general,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1000
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	16 Mar 2026 12:30
Last Modified:	23 Mar 2026 01:20
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102341
DOI:	10.1126/sciadv.abq2616

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