Africa presents the most complex genetic picture of any continent, with a time depth for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages >100,000 years. The most recent widespread demographic shift within the continent was most probably the Bantu dispersals, which archaeological and linguistic evidence suggest originated in West Africa 3,000-4,000 years ago, spreading both east and south. Here, we have carr...

The sequences of the coat protein gene of a representative sample of 40 isolates of Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) from 11 African countries were analysed. The overall level of nucleotide diversity was high (approximately 14%). Great geographical distances between the sites where isolates were collected were consistently associated with high genetic distances. In contrast, a wide range of gene...

Understanding the evolutionary relationships of Trypanosoma (Duttonella) vivax genotypes between West Africa and Southern Africa can provide information on the epidemiology and control of trypanosomosis. Cattle blood samples from Zambia and Ghana were screened for T. vivax infection using specie-specific PCR and sequencing analysis. Substantial polymorphism was obtained from phylogenetic analys...

2015;28(4) S Afr J Clin Nutr Siziba LP, MSc, PhD Student, Jerling J, PhD, Director Centre of Excellence for Nutrition, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa Hanekom SM, PhD, Director, School of Physiology, Nutrition and Consumer Sciences, Centre of Excellence for Nutrition, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa Wentzel-Viljoen E, PhD, Extraordinary Professor of Nutriti...

The African lion has declined to <35,000 individuals occupying 25% of its historic range. The situation is most critical for the geographically isolated populations in West Africa, where the species is considered regionally endangered. Elevating their conservation significance, recent molecular studies establish the genetic distinctiveness of West and Central African lions from other extant Afr...

INTRODUCTION Integration is a phenomenon that has been gaining ground the world over. It can be seen in the Americas in the forms of a customs unions like MERCOSUR (South America) or a free trade area like NAFTA (North America), a common market in Europe with the EU, and regional cooperation in Asia with ASEAN. It comes as no surprise therefore that Africa would be on the verge of the developme...

West Africa is known to be particularly vulnerable to climate change due to high climate variability, high reliance on rain-fed agriculture, and limited economic and institutional capacity to respond to climate variability and change. In this context, better knowledge of how climate will change in West Africa and how such changes will impact crop productivity is crucial to inform policies that ...

OBJECTIVES To carry out a meta-analysis to assess the prevalence of four key breastfeeding indicators in four subregions of 29 sub-Saharan African countries. DESIGN, SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS The 29 countries were categorised into four subregions, and using cross-sectional data from the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys (2010-2015) of these countries prevalence of each of four key br...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is classified into seven genotypes based on genetic diversity, and most genotypes have been found in Africa. Infections with HCV genotype 2 (HCV2) are most prevalent in West Africa and it was suggested that HCV2 originated in West Africa. To better understand the evolutionary epidemiology of HCV2 in Africa, we examined new NS5B sequences of HCV2 strains obtained from Côt...