567)Scientists Decode Genomes Of Five Africans, Including Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Quote From Blogpost Four Hundred.

"All human beings, by their nature, desire to know."(Aristotle, The Metaphysics, circa 322BC)

http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html



Quote from article below:
"Dr. Hayes said Archbishop Tutu was selected because of his keen interest in medicine and because his parents come from the two largest Bantu groups in South Africa, the Sotho-Tswana and the Nguni.
Bantu speakers originated in West Africa and began to migrate southward some 5,000 years ago, displacing the Bushmen, who were until recently hunter-gatherers.
Archbishop Tutu turns out to have Bushman mitochondrial DNA, a genetic element passed down through the female line. This Bantu-Bushman marriage was probably in the distant past since most of the rest of his genome is Bantu, the researchers said Wednesday in a telephone news conference. Their report is published in the journal Nature.
African genomes are of particular interest for understanding human genetic history because they have more variation in their DNA than other populations. Everyone outside Africa is descended from a small group that left some 50,000 years ago, carrying away only a small sample of the available genetic diversity.
Africans carry the bulk of the human genetic heritage but have been relatively little studied. Most genomic studies done in Africa so far have focused on the Yoruba of Nigeria. With the analysis of the Bushmen DNA, genomic analysis has now been extended to two of the 14 major African populations identified by Sarah Tishkoff, an expert on African genetics at the University of Pennsylvania."


February 18, 2010

Scientists Decode Genomes of Five Africans, Including Archbishop Tutu

By NICHOLAS WADE

The complete genomes of five southern Africans have been decoded, almost doubling the number of published human DNA sequences. The Africans include four Bushmen hunter-gatherers, known as !Gubi, G/aq’o, D#kgao and !Ai, the odd symbols representing different clicking sounds in Bushmen languages. The fifth person, a Bantu, is none other than Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The individuals were selected by Vanessa M. Hayes of the University of New South Wales in Australia and Stephan C. Schuster and Webb Miller of Pennsylvania State University; the genomes were decoded by Richard A. Gibbs and colleagues at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Dr. Hayes said Archbishop Tutu was selected because of his keen interest in medicine and because his parents come from the two largest Bantu groups in South Africa, the Sotho-Tswana and the Nguni.

Bantu speakers originated in West Africa and began to migrate southward some 5,000 years ago, displacing the Bushmen, who were until recently hunter-gatherers.

Archbishop Tutu turns out to have Bushman mitochondrial DNA, a genetic element passed down through the female line. This Bantu-Bushman marriage was probably in the distant past since most of the rest of his genome is Bantu, the researchers said Wednesday in a telephone news conference. Their report is published in the journal Nature.

African genomes are of particular interest for understanding human genetic history because they have more variation in their DNA than other populations. Everyone outside Africa is descended from a small group that left some 50,000 years ago, carrying away only a small sample of the available genetic diversity.

Africans carry the bulk of the human genetic heritage but have been relatively little studied. Most genomic studies done in Africa so far have focused on the Yoruba of Nigeria. With the analysis of the Bushmen DNA, genomic analysis has now been extended to two of the 14 major African populations identified by Sarah Tishkoff, an expert on African genetics at the University of Pennsylvania.

“This is just a beginning, and is paving the way for other genomic studies across a broad range of ethnic Africans,” Dr. Tishkoff said.

Geneticists are interested in variations in the human DNA sequence because these underlie human diversity, including susceptibility to disease. The Pennsylvania team found 1.3 million novel DNA variants in its five Africans, and some 13,000 new changes in those parts of the DNA that specify proteins, the working parts of living human cells.

The Bushmen genomes are of particular interest since the Bushmen’s ancestors branched off the main human lineage earlier than anyone else. Most of the many variations detected in their genomes were acquired after they branched off from the main lineage, the researchers said.

Genetic variations favored by natural selection often become common in a population. With the Bushmen, a large proportion of the protein-changing differences were found to occur in genes involved in visual acuity and the perception of smell and sound. This suggests these variations could have been favored because they are of great importance to hunter gatherers.

Dr. Tishkoff said the number of variations found in the Bushmen was quite high and could to some extent reflect errors in the decoding process.

Dr. Schuster and Dr. Hayes said they hoped their findings would make it easier for southern Africans to be included in surveys looking for the roots of genetic disease. At present, the gene chips used to scan the genome for variations are programmed to look for variations common in European and East Asian populations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/science/18genome.html?ref=science


Related:
The Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society: How I discovered my ancestry from 10-15 thousand years ago.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2007/11/249the-genographic-projectnational.html

Weaving Together The KESHAVJEE Family Story From The Accounts of Mamdoo Keshavjee, Lella Umedaly, Muthal Naidoo and Easy Nash; Quote Of Aristotle.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/12/534weaving-together-keshavjee-family.html

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on ISMAILI MAIL
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/?s=desmond+tutu&searchbutton=go%21



Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html

In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)