SCIENCE BRIEFING
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Africans have more genetic variation than anyone else on Earth, according to a new study that helps narrow the location where humans first evolved, probably near the South Africa-Namibia border.
“Given the fact that modern humans arose in Africa, they have had time to accumulate dramatic changes” in their genes, said University of Pennsylvania geneticist Sarah Tishkoff, whose study was published online Thursday in the journal Science. Clear differences were found in prevalence of diseases such as hypertension and prostate cancer across populations. The study also found that about 71% of African Americans can trace their ancestry to West Africa.
