Originally Posted by
AcadianDriftwood
I'm pretty sure the SSA admixture is either noise, or perhaps a genetic similarity. There may be some admixture, but I doubt it's in ALL people.
A disease found in Southern Europeans and Levantines (not sure about Jews), thalassemia, is very similar to sickle cell, and maybe a similar gene is responsible, and shows up as an SSA marker on genetic tests.
But bringing up Levantines, I read that SSA gene flow comes from ports in the Levant being important in the Trans-Saharan slave trade. Again, though, I don't think would be in all people from that region. Frequency would probably be quite small.