About The Artwork
A cover illustration for the Tishkoff Lab of the University of Pennsylvania
Year: 2023
Published on the cover of the journal Cell (Volume 186, Issue 5) to accompany the manuscript "Whole-genome sequencing reveals a complex African population demographic history and signatures of local adaptation" by Fan et al.
On the cover: In this issue, Fan et al. present high coverage whole-genome sequencing of 180 individuals from 12 indigenous African populations, reporting functional variants and providing insights on human evolutionary history. On the cover, diverse populations included in the study are illustrated by figures shown in their traditional dress. The roots of the tree terminate at dots indicating the locations where these populations reside, which is in four countries (Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Tanzania). The color of the dots represents the four main languages spoken by these populations: Nigercongo (red), Khoesan (yellow), Afroasiatic (purple), and Nilosaharan (green). The vibrantly colored striped background is derived from the data in the paper and conveys the large amount of genomic diversity on the continent. Image credit: Stacie L. Bumgarner.