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Mozambican genetic variation provides new insights into the Bantu expansion

Armando Semo, Magdalena Gayà-Vidal, Cesar Fortes-Lima, Bérénice Alard, Sandra Oliveira, João Almeida, António Prista, Albertino Damasceno, Anne-Maria Fehn, Carina Schlebusch, Jorge Rocha
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/697474
Armando Semo
aCIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, n° 7, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
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Magdalena Gayà-Vidal
aCIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, n° 7, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
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Cesar Fortes-Lima
bDepartment of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvagen 18C, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
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Bérénice Alard
aCIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, n° 7, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
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Sandra Oliveira
cDepartment of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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João Almeida
aCIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, n° 7, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
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António Prista
dFaculdade de Medicina, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Avenida Salvador Allende 702, 257 Maputo, Mozambique
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Albertino Damasceno
eFaculdade de Educação Física e Desporto, Universidade Pedagógica de Moçambique, Avenida Eduardo Mondlane 955, 257 Maputo, Mozambique
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Anne-Maria Fehn
aCIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, n° 7, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
fDepartment of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
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Carina Schlebusch
bDepartment of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvagen 18C, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
gPalaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa
hSciLifeLab, Uppsala, Sweden
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Jorge Rocha
aCIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, n° 7, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
iDepartamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua Campo Alegre s/n, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
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  • For correspondence: jrocha@cibio.up.pt
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Abstract

The Bantu expansion, which started in West Central Africa around 5,000 BP, constitutes a major migratory movement involving the joint spread of peoples and languages across sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the rich linguistic and archaeological evidence available, the genetic relationships between different Bantu-speaking populations and the migratory routes they followed during various phases of the expansion remain poorly understood. Here, we analyze the genetic profiles of southwestern and southeastern Bantu-speaking peoples located at the edges of the Bantu expansion by generating genome-wide data for 200 individuals from 12 Mozambican and 3 Angolan populations using ∼1.9 million autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms. Incorporating a wide range of available genetic data, our analyses confirm previous results favoring a “late split” between West and East Bantu speakers, following a joint passage through the rainforest. In addition, we find that Bantu speakers from eastern Africa display genetic substructure, with Mozambican populations forming a gradient of relatedness along a North-South cline stretching from the coastal border between Kenya and Tanzania to South Africa. This gradient is further associated with a southward increase in genetic homogeneity, and involved minimum admixture with resident populations. Together, our results provide the first genetic evidence in support of a rapid North-South dispersal of Bantu peoples along the Indian Ocean Coast, as inferred from the distribution and antiquity of Early Iron Age assemblages associated with the Kwale archaeological tradition.

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Posted July 10, 2019.
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Mozambican genetic variation provides new insights into the Bantu expansion
Armando Semo, Magdalena Gayà-Vidal, Cesar Fortes-Lima, Bérénice Alard, Sandra Oliveira, João Almeida, António Prista, Albertino Damasceno, Anne-Maria Fehn, Carina Schlebusch, Jorge Rocha
bioRxiv 697474; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/697474
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Mozambican genetic variation provides new insights into the Bantu expansion
Armando Semo, Magdalena Gayà-Vidal, Cesar Fortes-Lima, Bérénice Alard, Sandra Oliveira, João Almeida, António Prista, Albertino Damasceno, Anne-Maria Fehn, Carina Schlebusch, Jorge Rocha
bioRxiv 697474; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/697474

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