ArticlePLoS genetics2012
Genomic ancestry of North Africans supports back-to-Africa migrations.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 193 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
193 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 357 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Genetics and meta-analysis of recessive non-syndromic hearing impairment and Usher syndrome in Maghreb population: lessons from the past, contemporary actualities and future challenges.Human genetics · 2022Pooled it
- Genetic Factors Influencing Warfarin Dose in Black-African Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2020Pooled it
- Impact of Genetic Polymorphisms on Phenytoin Pharmacokinetics and Clinical Outcomes in the Middle East and North Africa Region.Drugs in R&D · 2017Pooled it
- Whole-exome analysis in Tunisian Imazighen and Arabs shows the impact of demography in functional variation.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Genomic evidence for shared common ancestry of East African hunting-gathering populations and insights into local adaptation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Trial
- Recovering the precolonial population structure of Khoe-San descendant populations.Science advances · 2026Article
- Extending genome-wide association studies to admixed cohorts with high degrees of relatedness.Nature genetics · 2026Article
- Multiple Eurasian Origins and Admixture Shaped the Genomic Legacy of the House Mouse Invasion in Africa.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Deciphering the genetic diversity in the Arabian Peninsula and Africa: insights from Y-STR data.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2026Article
- Lower Dose-Normalized Tacrolimus Exposure in CYP3A5*6 vs. *3 Loss-of-Function Allele Carriers: A Longitudinal Retrospective Real-World Study in Kidney Transplant Recipients.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2026Article
- The North African maternal genetic diversity enriched by historical migrations: insights from a comprehensive analysis of complete mitogenomes.Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society · 2026Article
- A multi-ancestry genetic reference for the Quebec population.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Hereditary ovarian cancer in women with African ancestry: a scoping review.Familial cancer · 2026Article
- Insights into human history and complex traits from the genomes of African populations.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Review
- Amplicon-based DNA sequencing to characterize Duffy antigen polymorphisms and analysis of Duffy blood system and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency in Mauritania.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Recovering the pre-colonial population structure of Khoe-San descendant populations.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Unraveling Evolution in the Homoploid Complex ofEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- STAT3 rs1053005 (T/C) contributes to Behçet's disease risk and ocular lesions.Clinical rheumatology · 2025Article
- Jointly representing long-range genetic similarity and spatially heterogeneous isolation-by-distance.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
133 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
North African populations are distinct from sub-Saharan Africans based on cultural, linguistic, and phenotypic attributes; however, the time and the extent of genetic divergence between populations north and south of the Sahara remain poorly understood. Here, we interrogate the multilayered history of North Africa by characterizing the effect of hypothesized migrations from the Near East, Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa on current genetic diversity. We present dense, genome-wide SNP genotyping array data (730,000 sites) from seven North African populations, spanning from Egypt to Morocco, and one Spanish population. We identify a gradient of likely autochthonous Maghrebi ancestry that increases from east to west across northern Africa; this ancestry is likely derived from "back-to-Africa" gene flow more than 12,000 years ago (ya), prior to the Holocene. The indigenous North African ancestry is more frequent in populations with historical Berber ethnicity. In most North African populations we also see substantial shared ancestry with the Near East, and to a lesser extent sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. To estimate the time of migration from sub-Saharan populations into North Africa, we implement a maximum likelihood dating method based on the distribution of migrant tracts. In order to first identify migrant tracts, we assign local ancestry to haplotypes using a novel, principal component-based analysis of three ancestral populations. We estimate that a migration of western African origin into Morocco began about 40 generations ago (approximately 1,200 ya); a migration of individuals with Nilotic ancestry into Egypt occurred about 25 generations ago (approximately 750 ya). Our genomic data reveal an extraordinarily complex history of migrations, involving at least five ancestral populations, into North Africa.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.