New Genome Sequences Reveal Undescribed African Migration

An analysis of the genomes of people from 50 ethnolinguistic groups in Africa spots 62 genes under positive selection and 3 million more genetic variants than previously documented.

Written byMax Kozlov

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JENNIFER KOSIG

A lack of ethnic diversity in global genome databases has long been a source of discussion in the scientific community. Africans in particular are underrepresented in these datasets, limiting the conclusions that can be drawn about human health and disease on the continent. Now, groups are looking to buck the trend by diversifying genomics research.

The Bantu migration is this major migration of languages across the continent, and so being able to fill in that part of human history and migration is also a big step forward.

A new study published in Nature yesterday (October 28) and conducted through Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa), a consortium devoted to increasing African representation in genetics research, uncovered 3 million new genetic variants in one of the most extensive studies of African genomes reported to date.

The research team performed whole-genome sequencing analyses of 426 individuals that ...

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Meet the Author

Max Kozlov
Max is a science journalist from Boston. Though he studied cognitive neuroscience, he now prefers to write about brains rather than research them. Prior to writing for The Scientist as an editorial intern in late 2020 and early 2021, Max worked at the Museum of Science in Boston, where his favorite part of the job was dressing in a giant bee costume and teaching children about honeybees. He was also a AAAS Mass Media Fellow, where he worked as a science reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Read more of his work at www.maxkozlov.com.
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