The relationship between social organisation and biological variabilitry of Fali population from North Cameroun

Mgr. V. Černý, PhD. (404/99/D023) 1999-2002

The project surveys the contact zone of sub-Saharan and Caucasoid populations from the molecular genetic perspective. It is possible to infer some results about prehistoric migrations from the genetic structure of contemporary populations, which can in turn be interpreted in the light of different climatic (drying up of Sahara) or historical (trans-Saharan corridors) evidence. In addition to the genetic diversity of contemporary populations, it is intended that ancient DNA will be isolated from bones dated by archaeological excavation. The mitochondrial DNA selected for analysis is a suitable object of study for various reasons: it represents the non-recombining portion of the human genome and mutations are accumulated much more frequently than in nuclear DNA. Since there are some structural differences between sub-Saharan and European populations the authenticity of ancient PCR products can be proved. Last but not least - the number of copies of mtDNA per cell offer a better chance of the successful analysis of samples with degraded DNA (archaeological bone).