Pourquoi Les Berbères Présentent-Ils Une Diversité Génétique Si Unique ?

Fifteen thousand years ago, in a cave in eastern Morocco, hunter-gatherers buried their dead with seashells brought from the coast. Their DNA, sequenced in 2018, is the oldest ever recovered in Africa. It reveals a population at the crossroads of the Near East and sub-Saharan Africa—with no connection to Paleolithic Europe, contrary to what archaeologists had assumed. These individuals from Taforalt are the direct ancestors of the Imazighen. And yet, contemporary Amazighs—Kabyles, Tuaregs, Mozabites, Chaouis, Rifians—exhibit genetic distances that defy any notion of homogeneity. How could the same name, the same language, the same identity have been transmitted through such genetically diverse populations? In this episode, we explore the most recent studies: the demographic model of Serradell et al. Published in Genome Biology in 2024, which shows that the Amazigh people separated from the Eurasian branch approximately 18,000 years ago; data from Scientific Reports of the same year on Amazigh genomic microheterogeneity; and the medical implications of a diversity that has been ignored for too long. Amazigh identity has survived everything. But not because it has remained the same. It is because it has always known how to transform itself without dissolving. Bibliography Van de Loosdrecht, M. et al., Pleistocene North African genomes link Near Eastern and sub-Saharan African human populations, Science, 2018. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s... Serradell, J.M., Lorenzo-Salazar, J.M., Flores, C., Lao, O., Comas, D., Modeling the demographic history of human North African genomes points to a recent soft split divergence between populations, Genome Biology, 2024. https://link.springer.com/article/10.... Comas, D. et al., Understanding the genomic heterogeneity of North African Imazighen: from broad to microgeographical perspectives, Scientific Reports, 2024. https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159... Arauna, L.R. et al., Recent historical migrations have shaped the gene pool of Arabs and Berbers in North Africa, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2017. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Lucas-Sánchez, M. et al., Whole-exome analysis in Tunisian Imazighen and Arabs shows the impact of demographics in functional variation, Scientific Reports, 2021. https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159... Lucas-Sánchez, M. et al., Impact of Recent Demography on Functional Genetic Variation in North African Human Groups, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2024. https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... Serra-Vidal, G. et al., Heterogeneity in Palaeolithic population continuity and Neolithic expansion in North Africa, Current Biology, 2019. Henn, B.M. et al., Genomic ancestry of North Africans supports back-to-Africa migrations, PLOS Genetics, 2012. https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetic... Strobl, C. et al., Biomolecular insights into North African-related ancestry, mobility and diet in eleventh-century Al-Andalus, Scientific Reports, 2021. https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159... Aizpurua-Iraola, J. et al., Whole mitogenomes reveal that NW Africa has acted both as a source and a destination for multiple human movements, Scientific Reports, 2023. Rodrigues dos Santos, M. et al., Whole Y-chromosome sequences reveal an extremely recent origin of the most common North African paternal lineage E-M183 (M81), Scientific Reports, 2017. https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159... Zorrilla-Revilla, G. et al., Ancient DNA from the Green Sahara reveals ancestral North African lineage, Nature, 2025. https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158... #OriginCode #Berbers #Amazigh #Imazighen #HumanGenetics #NorthAfrica #Maghreb #AncientDNA #Archaeogenetics #AfricanHistory