Origin of African Pygmies

From the paper:

Finally, our estimates of gene flow between each group of Pygmies and agricultural populations yielded contrasting values, with levels of gene flow between WPYG and AGR populations three to seven times higher than those between EPYG and AGR populations (Table 2). This result, together with those obtained with protein markers [27], mtDNA [8],[36] and autosomal microsatellites [41],[46], indicates that (i) substantial gene flow has occurred between Western Pygmies and agricultural populations, possibly during a period before the strong social barriers currently separating these two groups became established [29],[32],[33],[41],[56], and (ii) the Eastern Mbuti Pygmies (i.e., the EPYG group in the filtered population dataset) have probably been among the most isolated Pygmy populations of sub-Saharan Africa.

Related:

• Maternal common ancestry between pygmies and farmers in Central Africa
• Common origin and differential admixture in Western Central African pygmies

Here are some pictures of Mbuti Pygmies from a National Geographic article.

PLoS Genetics doi:Inferring the Demographic History of African Farmers and Pygmy Hunter–Gatherers Using a Multilocus Resequencing Data Set

Inferring the Demographic History of African Farmers and Pygmy Hunter–Gatherers Using a Multilocus Resequencing Data Set

Etienne Patin et al.

Abstract

The transition from hunting and gathering to farming involved a major cultural innovation that has spread rapidly over most of the globe in the last ten millennia. In sub-Saharan Africa, hunter–gatherers have begun to shift toward an agriculture-based lifestyle over the last 5,000 years. Only a few populations still base their mode of subsistence on hunting and gathering. The Pygmies are considered to be the largest group of mobile hunter–gatherers of Africa. They dwell in equatorial rainforests and are characterized by their short mean stature. However, little is known about the chronology of the demographic events—size changes, population splits, and gene flow—ultimately giving rise to contemporary Pygmy (Western and Eastern) groups and neighboring agricultural populations. We studied the branching history of Pygmy hunter–gatherers and agricultural populations from Africa and estimated separation times and gene flow between these populations. We resequenced 24 independent noncoding regions across the genome, corresponding to a total of ~33 kb per individual, in 236 samples from seven Pygmy and five agricultural populations dispersed over the African continent. We used simulation-based inference to identify the historical model best fitting our data. The model identified included the early divergence of the ancestors of Pygmy hunter–gatherers and farming populations ~60,000 years ago, followed by a split of the Pygmies' ancestors into the Western and Eastern Pygmy groups ~20,000 years ago. Our findings increase knowledge of the history of the peopling of the African continent in a region lacking archaeological data. An appreciation of the demographic and adaptive history of African populations with different modes of subsistence should improve our understanding of the influence of human lifestyles on genome diversity.

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