Africans have world's greatest genetic variation

Africans have world's greatest genetic variation

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID

WASHINGTON – 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.

The largest study of African genetics ever undertaken also found that nearly three-fourths of African-Americans can trace their ancestry to West Africa. The new analysis published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science.

"Given the fact that modern humans arose in Africa, they have had time to accumulate dramatic changes" in their genes, explained lead researcher Sarah Tishkoff, a geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090430/ap_on_sc/us_sci_african_origins

 

Yeap, we are all African. It is just a matter of how far removed.