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Man Did Originate from Africa – More Evidence

by Medindia Content Team on Feb 25 2008 5:15 PM

Further confirmation that man perhaps originated from Africa has come from a genetic study undertaken by Stanford university team in the US.

Researchers led by Richard M. Myers of Stanford University report in Friday's issue of the journal Science,” Human genetic diversity is shaped by both demographic and biological factors and has fundamental implications for understanding the genetic basis of diseases. We studied 938 unrelated individuals from 51 populations of the Human Genome Diversity Panel at 650,000 common single-nucleotide polymorphism loci. Individual ancestry and population substructure were detectable with very high resolution. The relationship between haplotype heterozygosity and geography was consistent with the hypothesis of a serial founder effect with a single origin in sub-Saharan Africa.

The team looked at variations in 650,000 sections of each of the DNA samples, providing a view of the similarities and differences between people in greater detail than had been available previously.

In addition, they noted that residents of the Middle East can trace their ancestry to both Africa and Europe, which they said was logical since the region formed a bridge for movement back and forth between the areas.

Also, they noted, they found a close a relationship between the Yakut population of Siberia and native Americans, who are believed to have migrated from Siberia via a land bridge at a time of lower sea levels.

Source-Medindia
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