BMC Evolutionary Biology 2010, 10:138
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-138 The trans-Saharan slave trade -
clues from interpolation analyses and high-resolution
characterization of mitochondrial DNA lineages A proportion of
1/4 to 1/2 of North African female pool is made of typical sub-
Saharan lineages, in higher frequencies as geographic proximity
to sub-Saharan Africa increases. The Sahara was a strong
geographical barrier against gene flow, at least since 5,000
years ago, when desertification affected a larger region, but
the Arab trans-Saharan slave trade could have facilitate
enormously this migration of lineages. Till now, the genetic
consequences of these forced trans-Saharan movements of people
have not been ascertained. The distribution of the main L
haplogroups in North Africa clearly reflects the known trans-
Saharan slave routes: West is dominated by L1b, L2b, L2c, L2d,
L3b and L3d; the Center by L3e and some L3f and L3w; the East by
L0a, L3h, L3i, L3x and, in common with the Center, L3f and L3w;
while, L2