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 Publishing the findings in the journal Nature on Wednesday, Deepti
Gurdasani of Britain's Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said that
despite Africa being the world's most genetically diverse region,
relatively little is known about potential genetic risks for disease
among its populations.
In the United States, Europe and Asia, ever faster gene sequencing
tools mean scientists have begun to untangle the genetic roots of
many major diseases and explore their links to environment and
lifestyle factors like diet, smoking and exercise.
"Infectious and non-infectious diseases are highly prevalent in
Africa and the risk factors for these diseases may be very different
from those in European populations," Gurdasani said.
The scientists -- working in partnerships with doctors and
researchers in Ethiopia, the Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South
Africa and Uganda -- collected genetic data from more than 1,800
people to make a detailed map of 18 so-called "ethnolinguistic"
groups in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The data also included 320 whole genome sequences from seven
populations.
The team found 30 million genetic variants in the seven sequenced
populations, a quarter of which they said had never previously been
identified in any human population.
They also found clues about possible genetic regions being linked to
increased susceptibility to high blood pressure and various
infectious diseases including malaria, Lassa fever and
trypanosomiasis, all common diseases in some parts of Africa.
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"These genetic variants seem to occur with different frequencies in
disease endemic and non-endemic regions, suggesting that this may
have occurred in response to the different environments these
populations have been exposed to over time," the scientists wrote.
The study, part of the African Genome Variation Project, also gives
clues about the movement of ancient human populations -- supporting
a hypothesis that European and Middle Eastern populations migrated
back to Africa around 9,000 years ago.
(Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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