Editing African Americans (section)

=== Genome-wide studies ===
[[File:PCA and individual ancestry estimates for African Americans.png|thumb|upright=1.6|Genetic clustering of 128 African Americans, by Zakharia et al. (2009). Each vertical bar represents an individual. The color scheme of the bar plot matches that in the PCA plot.<ref name="Zakharia2009" />]]

Recent studies of African Americans using genetic testing have found ancestry to vary by region and sex of ancestors. These studies found that on average, African Americans have 73.2–82.1% Sub-Saharan African, 16.7–24% European, and 0.8–1.2% Native American genetic ancestry, with large variation between individuals.<ref name="Bryc2009" /><ref name="Bryc 2015">{{cite journal |first1 = Katarzyna |last1 = Bryc |first2 = Eric Y. |last2 = Durand |first3 = J. Michael |last3=Macpherson |first4 = David |last4 = Reich |first5 = Joanna L. |last5 = Mountain |title = The Genetic Ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics|date=January 8, 2015|volume=96|issue=1|pages=37–53|doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.11.010|pmc=4289685 |pmid=25529636}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=Soheil |last1=Baharian |first2=Maxime |last2=Barakatt |first3=Christopher R. |last3=Gignoux |first4=Suyash |last4=Shringarpure |first5=Jacob |last5=Errington |first6=William J. |last6=Blot |first7=Carlos D. |last7=Bustamante |first8=Eimear E. |last8=Kenny |first9=Scott M. |last9=Williams |first10=Melinda C. |last10=Aldrich |first11=Simon |last11=Gravel |title = The Great Migration and African-American Genomic Diversity |journal = PLOS Genetics |date = May 27, 2015 |doi = 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006059 |volume=12 |issue=5 |pages=e1006059 |pmid=27232753 |pmc=4883799 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Commercial testing services have reported similar variation, with ranges from 0.6 to 2 percent Native American, 19 to 29 percent European, and 65 to 80 percent Sub-Saharan African ancestry.<ref>[[Henry Louis Gates, Jr.]], "[https://www.theroot.com/exactly-how-black-is-black-america-1790895185 Exactly How 'Black' Is Black America?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814202953/https://www.theroot.com/exactly-how-black-is-black-america-1790895185 |date=August 14, 2021 }}", ''The Root'', February 11, 2013.</ref>

According to a genome-wide study by Bryc et al. (2009), the mixed ancestry of African Americans in varying ratios came about as the result of sexual contact between West/Central Africans (more frequently females) and Europeans (more frequently males). This can be understood as being the result of enslaved African American females being [[History of sexual slavery in the United States#Under chattel slavery|raped]] by White males.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Micheletti |first1=Steven J. |display-authors=etal |title=Genetic Consequences of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Americas |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |date=August 6, 2020 |volume=107 |issue=2 |pages=265–277 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.06.012 |pmid=32707084 |pmc=7413858 |s2cid=222230119 }}</ref> Historians estimate that 58% of enslaved women in the US aged 15–30 years were sexually assaulted by their slave owners and other White men.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Racism, African American Women, and Their Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Review of Historical and Contemporary Evidence and Implications for Health Equity |date=2018 |publisher=National Institutes of Health (NIH)|pmc=6167003 |last1=Prather |first1=C. |last2=Fuller |first2=T. R. |last3=Jeffries Wl |first3=I. V. |last4=Marshall |first4=K. J. |last5=Howell |first5=A. V. |last6=Belyue-Umole |first6=A. |last7=King |first7=W. |journal=Health Equity |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=249–259 |doi=10.1089/heq.2017.0045 |pmid=30283874 }}</ref> Consequently, the 365 African Americans in their sample have a genome-wide average of 78.1% West African ancestry and 18.5% European ancestry, with large variation among individuals (ranging from 99% to 1% West African ancestry). The West African ancestral component in African Americans is most similar to that in present-day speakers from the non-[[Bantu languages|Bantu]] branches of the [[Niger-Congo languages|Niger-Congo]] family.<ref name="Bryc2009">{{cite journal |first1=Katarzyna |last1=Bryc |first2=Adam |last2=Auton |first3=Matthew R. |last3=Nelson |first4=Jorge R. |last4=Oksenberg |first5=Stephen L. |last5=Hauser |first6=Scott |last6=Williams |first7=Alain |last7=Froment |first8=Jean-Marie |last8=Bodo |first9=Charles |last9=Wambebe |first10=Sarah A. |last10=Tishkoff |first11=Carlos D. |last11=Bustamante |title=Genome-wide patterns of population structure and admixture in West Africans and African-Americans |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=January 12, 2010|volume=107|issue=2|pages=786–791|doi=10.1073/pnas.0909559107|pmid=20080753|pmc=2818934|bibcode=2010PNAS..107..786B |doi-access=free }}</ref>{{NoteTag|DNA studies of African-Americans have determined that they primarily descend from various [[Niger-Congo languages|Niger-Congo]]-speaking West/Central African ethnic groups: [[Akan people|Akan]] (including the [[Ashanti people|Ashanti]] and [[Fante people|Fante]] subgroups), [[Balanta people|Balanta]], [[Bamileke]], [[Bamum people|Bamun]], [[Bariba people|Bariba]], [[Biafada people|Biafara]], [[Abron tribe|Bran]], [[Chokwe people|Chokwe]], [[Dagomba people|Dagomba]], [[Edo people|Edo]], [[Ewe people|Ewe]], [[Fon people|Fon]], [[Fula people|Fula]], [[Ga people|Ga]], [[Gurma]], [[Hausa people|Hausa]], [[Ibibio people|Ibibio]] (including the [[Efik people|Efik]] subgroup), [[Igbo people|Igbo]], [[Igala people|Igala]], [[Ijaw people|Ijaw]] (including the [[Kalabari tribe|Kalabari]] subgroup), [[Itsekiri]], [[Jola people|Jola]], [[Luchazes|Luchaze]], [[Lunda people|Lunda]], [[Kpelle people|Kpele]], [[Kru people|Kru]], [[Mahi people|Mahi]], [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]] (including the [[Mende people|Mende]] subgroup), [[Nalu people|Naulu]], [[Serer people|Serer]], [[Susu people|Susu]], [[Temne people|Temne]], [[Tikar]], [[Wolof people|Wolof]], [[Yaka people|Yaka]], [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]], and [[Bantu peoples]]; specifically the [[Duala people|Duala]], [[Kongo people|Kongo]], [[Luba people|Luba]], [[Ambundu|Mbundu]] (including the [[Ovimbundu]] subgroup) and [[Teke people|Teke]].<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2011/10/african_ethnicities_and_their_origins/ |title = African Ethnicities and Their Origins |first1 = John |last1 = Thornton |author1-link = John Thornton (historian) |first2 = Linda |last2 = Heywood |date = October 1, 2011 |website = [[The Root (magazine)|The Root]] |access-date = January 2, 2017 |archive-date = January 3, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170103004156/http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2011/10/african_ethnicities_and_their_origins/ |url-status = live }}</ref>}}

Correspondingly, Montinaro et al. (2014) observed that around 50% of the overall ancestry of African Americans traces comes from a population similar to the Niger-Congo-speaking [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] of southern [[Nigeria]] and southern [[Benin]], reflecting the centrality of this West African region in the Atlantic slave trade. The next most frequent ancestral component found among African Americans was derived from Great Britain, in keeping with historical records. It constitutes a little over 10% of their overall ancestry and is most similar to the Northwest European ancestral component also carried by [[Barbadians]].<ref name="Montinaro2014">{{cite journal|first1=Francesco |last1=Montinaro |first2=George B.J. |last2=Busby |first3=Vincenzo L. |last3=Pascali |first4=Simon |last4=Myers |first5=Garrett |last5=Hellenthal |first6=Cristian |last6=Capelli |title = Unravelling the hidden ancestry of American admixed populations |journal = Nature Communications |date=March 24, 2015 |doi=10.1038/ncomms7596 |volume=6 |page=6596 |pmid=25803618 |pmc=4374169 |bibcode=2015NatCo...6.6596M }}</ref> Zakharia et al. (2009) found a similar proportion of Yoruba-like ancestry in their African American samples, with a minority also drawn from [[Mandinka people|Mandenka]] and [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] populations. Additionally, the researchers observed an average European ancestry of 21.9%, again with significant variation between individuals.<ref name="Zakharia2009">{{cite journal |first1=Fouad |last1=Zakharia |first2=Analabha |last2=Basu |first3=Devin |last3=Absher |first4=Themistocles L. |last4=Assimes |first5=Alan S. |last5=Go |first6=Mark A. |last6=Hlatky |first7=Carlos |last7=Iribarren |first8=Joshua W. |last8=Knowles |first9=Jun |last9=Li |first10=Balasubramanian |last10=Narasimhan |first11=Steven |last11=Sidney |first12=Audrey |last12=Southwick |first13=Richard M. |last13=Myers |first14=Thomas |last14=Quertermous |first15=Neil |last15=Risch |first16=Hua |last16=Tang |title=Characterizing the admixed African ancestry of African Americans |journal=Genome Biology |year=2009 |volume=10 |issue=R141 |pages=R141 |doi=10.1186/gb-2009-10-12-r141 |pmid=20025784 |pmc=2812948 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Bryc et al. (2009) note that populations from other parts of the continent may also constitute adequate proxies for the ancestors of some African American individuals; namely, ancestral populations from [[Guinea Bissau]], [[Senegal]] and [[Sierra Leone]] in West Africa and [[Angola]] in Southern Africa.<ref name="Bryc2009" /> An individual African American person can have over fifteen African ethnic groups in their genetic makeup alone due to the slave trade covering such vast areas.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 8, 2023 |title=African American Ethnic Heritage |url=https://blackdemographics.com/african-american-ethnic-heritage/amp/ |access-date=November 8, 2023 |website=Black Demographics |archive-date=November 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109193521/https://blackdemographics.com/african-american-ethnic-heritage/amp/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Altogether, genetic studies suggest that African Americans are a genetically diverse people. According to DNA analysis led in 2006 by [[Pennsylvania State University|Penn State]] geneticist [[Mark D. Shriver]], around 58 percent of African Americans have at least 12.5% European ancestry (equivalent to one European great-grandparent and their forebears), 19.6 percent of African Americans have at least 25% European ancestry (equivalent to one European grandparent and their forebears), and 1 percent of African Americans have at least 50% European ancestry (equivalent to one European parent and their forebears).<ref name="auto">{{cite book|author=Gates, Henry Louis Jr|title=In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past|date=2009|publisher=New York: Crown Publishing|pages=20–21|author-link=Henry Louis Gates Jr.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title = Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Michelle's Great-Great-Great-Granddaddy—and Yours |url = https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/118292 |author = Henry Louis Gates Jr. |date = November 8, 2009 |access-date = April 11, 2015 |archive-date = April 11, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150411083013/http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/118292 |url-status = live }}</ref> According to Shriver, around 5 percent of African Americans also have at least 12.5% Native American ancestry (equivalent to one Native American great-grandparent and their forebears).<ref>{{cite book |title=The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader|author=Henry Louis Gates Jr. |publisher=Basci Civitas Books }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title = 5 Things to Know About Blacks and Native Americans |url = https://www.ebony.com/life/5-things-to-know-about-blacks-and-native-americans-119 |date = November 20, 2012 |access-date = April 11, 2015 |archive-date = April 19, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150419023648/http://www.ebony.com/life/5-things-to-know-about-blacks-and-native-americans-119 |url-status = live }}</ref> Research suggests that Native American ancestry among people who identify as African American is a result of relationships that occurred soon after slave ships arrived in the American colonies, and European ancestry is of more recent origin, often from the decades before the Civil War.<ref name="dnana1">{{cite news |last = Zimmer |first = Carl |title = Tales of African-American History Found in DNA |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/science/african-american-dna.html |archive-url = https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/science/african-american-dna.html |archive-date = January 1, 2022 |url-access=limited |newspaper = The New York Times |access-date=May 10, 2019 |date = May 27, 2016 }}{{cbignore}}</ref>