Your privacy, your choice

We use essential cookies to make sure the site can function. We also use optional cookies for advertising, personalisation of content, usage analysis, and social media.

By accepting optional cookies, you consent to the processing of your personal data - including transfers to third parties. Some third parties are outside of the European Economic Area, with varying standards of data protection.

See our privacy policy for more information on the use of your personal data.

for further information and to change your choices.
Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • CORRESPONDENCE

African American genomes don’t capture Africa’s genetic diversity

  1. Segun Fatumo

    1. Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe, Uganda.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Ananyo Choudhury

    1. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Only about 1% of genomic studies use data from people of African ancestry, and those data are mainly from African Americans (S. Fatumo et al. Nature Med. 28, 243–250; 2022). The mistaken presumption that the genetics of a relatively small diaspora must apply to all Africans threatens to widen the health disparities between people in Africa and those in wealthy nations.

Access options

Access through your institution

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 617, 35 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01479-y

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing