The Peopling of the African Continent and the Diaspora into the New World

Overview

Journal Curr Opin Genet Dev

Publisher Elsevier

Specialties Biology
Genetics

Date 2014 Dec 3

PMID 25461616

Citations 27

Authors

Michael C Campbell

Jibril B Hirbo

Jeffrey P Townsend

Sarah A Tishkoff

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Africa is the birthplace of anatomically modern humans, and is the geographic origin of human migration across the globe within the last 100,000 years. The history of African populations has consisted of a number of demographic events that have influenced patterns of genetic and phenotypic variation across the continent. With the increasing amount of genomic data and corresponding developments in computational methods, researchers are able to explore long-standing evolutionary questions, expanding our understanding of human history within and outside of Africa. This review will summarize some of the recent findings regarding African demographic history, including the African Diaspora, and will briefly explore their implications for disease susceptibility in populations of African descent.

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