A genetic mutation that occurred thousands of years ago
might be the answer to how early humans were able to move from central Africa
and across the continent in what has been called "the great
expansion," according to new research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical
Center.
By analyzing genetic sequence variation patterns in
different populations around the world, three teams of scientists from Wake
Forest Baptist, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University
of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, demonstrated that a critical genetic
variant arose in a key gene cluster on chromosome 11, known as the fatty acid
desaturase cluster or FADS, more than 85,000 years ago.