Sánchez Quinto, FedericoRodríguez Botigué, LauraCivit Vives, SergiArenas Solà, ConcepciónÁvila-Arcos, María C.Bustamante, Carlos D.Comas, DavidLalueza Fox, Carles, 1965-2013-05-172013-05-172012-101932-6203https://hdl.handle.net/2445/43562One of the main findings derived from the analysis of the Neandertal genome was the evidence for admixture between Neandertals and non-African modern humans. An alternative scenario is that the ancestral population of non-Africans was closer to Neandertals than to Africans because of ancient population substructure. Thus, the study of North African populations is crucial for testing both hypotheses. We analyzed a total of 780,000 SNPs in 125 individuals representing seven different North African locations and searched for their ancestral/derived state in comparison to different human populations and Neandertals. We found that North African populations have a significant excess of derived alleles shared with Neandertals, when compared to sub-Saharan Africans. This excess is similar to that found in non-African humans, a fact that can be interpreted as a sign of Neandertal admixture. Furthermore, the Neandertal's genetic signal is higher in populations with a local, pre-Neolithic North African ancestry. Therefore, the detected ancient admixture is not due to recent Near Eastern or European migrations. Sub-Saharan populations are the only ones not affected by the admixture event with Neandertals.6 p.application/pdfengcc-by (c) Sánchez Quinto, F. et al., 2012http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/esADNPaleobiologiaHome de NeandertalÀfrica del NordPaleobiologia evolutivaDNAPaleobiologyNeanderthalsAfrica, NorthEvolutionary paleobiologyinfo:eu-repo/semantics/article6182062013-05-17info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess23082212