Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42685213›Full record

ArticleScience advances2026

Recovering the precolonial population structure of Khoe-San descendant populations.

Stacy L Edington, Dana R Al-Hindi, Neus Font-Porterias, Alexandra Surowiec, William J Palmer, Justin W Myrick, Paul J Norman, Caitlin Uren, Marlo Möller, Brenna M Henn and 1 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Stacy L EdingtonDepartment of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-8143-9135
Dana R Al-HindiDepartment of Anthropology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.ORCID 0009-0002-2057-889X
Neus Font-PorteriasDepartment of Anthropology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-1357-9096
Alexandra SurowiecDepartment of Anthropology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
William J PalmerDepartment of Anthropology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
Justin W MyrickDepartment of Anthropology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
Paul J NormanDepartment of Biomedical Informatics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-8370-7703
Caitlin UrenSouth African Medical Research Council Centre for Tuberculosis Research, Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.ORCID 0000-0003-2358-0135
Marlo MöllerSouth African Medical Research Council Centre for Tuberculosis Research, Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.ORCID 0000-0002-0805-6741
Brenna M HennDepartment of Anthropology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4998-287X
Austin W ReynoldsDepartment of Microbiology, Immunology, and Genetics, University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7154-1379

Funding

Supplement: Improving Inference of Genetic Architecture and Selection with African GenomesR35GM133531 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · PI HENN, BRENNA M · 2019 to 2023
$2.3M
Integrating genomic architecture and tuberculosis (TB) immunity in AfricaR01AI187511 · NIAID · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER · PI Paul John Norman · 2025 to 2026
$1.6M
NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI187511NIGMS NIH HHS R35 GM133531
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

San populations from Botswana and Namibia retain exceptional linguistic, cultural, and genetic diversity, but few Khoisan-speaking groups remain south of the Kalahari Desert. However, historically, far southern Africa was home to many San and Khoekhoe groups. Popular opinion often implies that such populations do not contribute to the ancestry of contemporary South Africans. Here, we characterize the genetic ancestry of self-identified South African Coloured groups and reconstruct precolonial and colonial population structures from 620 newly sampled individuals. These groups retain the majority of Khoe-San genetic ancestry (>48%), suggesting the persistence of Khoe-San ancestry to the present day. By isolating the Khoe-San ancestry component, we show that it is intermediate between the ≠Khomani San and Nama and distinct from Kalahari Khoe-San populations. We also find that signatures of the Indian Ocean slave trade can be traced to Indonesian islands such as Sulawesi, Java, and Flores, while the South Asian ancestry is regionally nonspecific.

Indexed as

Ethnic and Racial MinoritiesGenetics, PopulationBotswanaGenetic VariationHaplotypesHumansNamibiaPhylogenySouthern African People

Identifiers

PMID42685213
PMCPMC13537254

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.