Out Of Bush
Decoding diversity in Bushmen
!Gubi, a Tuu-speaking Bushman from Namibia
Genetic researchers find a broad slice of humanity in one corner of Africa This new study of five Africans has identified more than 1.3 million new human genetic variants and could contribute to a better understanding of the genetic underpinnings of human diseases. The data might also help drug companies devise more effective medications to treat diseases in Africa, where many drugs do not work as well as they do in people of European ancestry, who were the primary test subjects in designing the drugs. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and four Bushmen community leaders from Namibia contributed their DNA for the new study, published in the Feb. 18 Nature. Researchers decoded the complete genetic blueprint of Tutu, who represents the Bantu ethnic group, and of one of the Bushmen, a man named !Gubi (punctuation characters in Bushmen names represent click consonants). The international team of scientists also deciphered the protein-coding portions of the genomes from three other Bushmen, G/aq'o, D#kgao and !Aî. Analyses of the men's genomes confirm that the Bushmen, also known as San or Khoisan, are among the most genetically diverse people in the world. Two Bushmen who live within walking distance of each other might have more genetic differences between them than a European and an Asian, says Stephan Schuster, a geneticist at Pennsylvania State University and one of the project's leaders. The researchers found that !Gubi and Tutu each have about 1 million previously unseen variations in their genome. These variations, called SNPs, change a single nucleotide, or chemical building block of DNA.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments