Just published in April in the Science Express is an amazing article on Ancestry testing. The international research team, led by Sarah Tishkoff, a geneticist at the University of Maryland and the University of Pennsylvania, studied genetic variation among 121 African populations, four African American populations, and 60 non-African populations by collecting DNA from many volunteers and comparing the sequences at various genetic markers around the genome. This research has lead to some fascinating conclusions.
Sarah Tishkoff and her team of international researchers collected DNA samples from all areas of Africa over the course of many years, creating a large data base of genetic markers. Looking at this large and varied data base has lead to a new understanding of African Ancestry. The result of this study shows shared ancestry among geographically diverse hunter-gatherer populations, including pygmies and click-speaking San as well ask click-speaking groups in East Africa. This shows a wide ranging population migration accost the African Content. This study shows that the African American population’s ancestry is predominantly from the Niger-Kordofanian population of West Africa (71%) as well as from European (13%) and other African (about 8%) populations.
While this research alone is completely fascinating, the possibilities for further research is wide open. It has been suggested by scientists that people originated in the African region. Therefore, this study is a gateway to perform comparisons of other races genome to this data base to determine the validity of that suggestion.
