Mitochondrial variability in the Mediterranean area: a complex stage for human migrations

Angelis, Flavio De; Scorrano, Gabriele; Martínez-Labarga, Cristina; Scano, Giuseppina; Macciardi, Fabìo; Rickards, Olga

doi:10.1080/03014460.2017.1416172

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 98 publications

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“…Among them, our human genetic results highlight the presence of an Italian genetic cluster which likely played a key role during the post-LGM resettlement of western Europe. These results are in accordance with the contraction of animal and plant species in southern areas of Europe, during the LGM 1 and the following expansion from these glacial refugia to northern and central areas of Europe 3 , 13 from 18 kya BP, thanks to the rapid climatic amelioration. On a continental scale, our results suggest that geographic clines and isolation-by-distance played an important role in shaping European hunter-gatherer diversity.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Analysis of kinship indicated that the two individuals were not closely related (Supplementary Data 6 ). The mitochondrial haplogroup of both individuals is U5b2b (Supplementary Data 5 ), one of the most common mitochondrial haplogroups found in post-LGM hunter-gatherers from Europe 13 – 15 , and likely associated with the resettlement of Europe after the LGM 3 . The San Teodoro individuals belong to the same subclade as the 14,180–13,780-year-old Palaeolithic (Late Epigravettian) individual Villabruna from Northern Italy, which represents the most diverged haplotype (Supplementary Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genomic ancestry, diet and microbiomes of Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers from San Teodoro cave

et al. 2022

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Recent improvements in the analysis of ancient biomolecules from human remains and associated dental calculus have provided new insights into the prehistoric diet and genetic diversity of our species. Here we present a multi-omics study, integrating metagenomic and proteomic analyses of dental calculus, and human ancient DNA analysis of the petrous bones of two post-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) individuals from San Teodoro cave (Italy), to reconstruct their lifestyle and the post-LGM resettlement of Europe. Our analyses show genetic homogeneity in Sicily during the Palaeolithic, representing a hitherto unknown Italian genetic lineage within the previously identified Villabruna cluster. We argue that this lineage took refuge in Italy during the LGM, followed by a subsequent spread to central-western Europe. Analysis of dental calculus showed a diet rich in animal proteins which is also reflected on the oral microbiome composition. Our results demonstrate the power of this approach in the study of prehistoric humans and will enable future research to reach a more holistic understanding of the population dynamics and ecology.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genomic ancestry, diet and microbiomes of Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers from San Teodoro cave

et al. 2022

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“…This implies that the modern DNA work summarized above [6,11,12] had erroneously identified the non-Neolithic component in the modern European gene pool as a Palaeolithic one. By contrast, ancient DNA [10,13,14] indicates that the non-Neolithic component is mainly due to post-Neolithic migrations [8,[15][16][17]. Owing to these results, nowadays the genetic consensus is that demic diffusion was more important than cultural diffusion in the spread of the Neolithic in Europe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating the relative importance of demic and cultural diffusion in the spread of the Neolithic in Scandinavia

Fort

Pareta

Sørensen

2018

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Using a database of early farming sites in Scandinavia, we estimate that the spread rate of the Neolithic was in the range 0.44–0.66 km yr −1 . This is substantially slower (by about 50%) than the rate in continental Europe. We interpret this result in the framework of a new mathematical model that includes horizontal cultural transmission (acculturation), vertical cultural transmission (interbreeding) and demic diffusion (reproduction and dispersal of farmers). To parametrize the model, we estimate reproduction rates of early farmers using archaeological data (sum-calibrated probabilities for the dates of early Neolithic Scandinavian sites) and use them in a wave-of-advance model for the first time. Comparing the model with the archaeological data, we find that the percentage of the spread rate due to cultural diffusion is below 50% (except for very extreme parameter values, and even for them it is below 54%). This strongly suggests that the spread of the Neolithic in Scandinavia was driven mainly by demic diffusion. This conclusion, obtained from archaeological data, agrees qualitatively with the implications of ancient genetic data, but the latter are yet too few in Scandinavia to produce any quantitative percentage for the spread rate due to cultural diffusion. We also find that, on average, fewer than eight hunter–gatherers were incorporated in the Neolithic communities by each group of 10 pioneering farmers, via horizontal and/or vertical cultural transmission.

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“…Concerning the phylogeography of Italy, it is difficult to identify a clear genetic pattern able to discriminate southern, northern and central populations in spite of several attempts based on autosomal and uniparental markers [19][20][21][22][23][24] . Southern populations were mostly influenced by Greek and Arab colonizations, Northern Italians might reflect admixture with French and German-speaking populations, while Central Italy occupies its own intermediate position creating a continuous cline of variation across the peninsula (with Sardinians as outliers) 13,19,[25][26][27][28][29] . Most of these studies were performed on a large geographic scale producing low-definition results and mainly focusing on modern populations.…”

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The mitogenome portrait of Umbria in Central Italy as depicted by contemporary inhabitants and pre-Roman remains

Modi

Lancioni

Cardinali

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Umbria is located in Central Italy and took the name from its ancient inhabitants, the Umbri, whose origins are still debated. Here, we investigated the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation of 545 present-day Umbrians (with 198 entire mitogenomes) and 28 pre-Roman individuals (obtaining 19 ancient mtDNAs) excavated from the necropolis of Plestia. We found a rather homogeneous distribution of western Eurasian lineages across the region, with few notable exceptions. Contemporary inhabitants of the eastern part, delimited by the Tiber River and the Apennine Mountains, manifest a peculiar mitochondrial proximity to central-eastern Europeans, mainly due to haplogroups U4 and U5a, and an overrepresentation of J (30%) similar to the pre-Roman remains, also excavated in East Umbria. Local genetic continuities are further attested to by six terminal branches (H1e1, J1c3, J2b1, U2e2a, U8b1b1 and K1a4a) shared between ancient and modern mitogenomes. Eventually, we identified multiple inputs from various population sources that likely shaped the mitochondrial gene pool of ancient Umbri over time, since early Neolithic, including gene flows with central-eastern Europe. This diachronic mtDNA portrait of Umbria fits well with the genome-wide population structure identified on the entire peninsula and with historical sources that list the Umbri among the most ancient Italic populations. Due to its acknowledged potential, archaeogenetics is broadly applied to study ancient civilizations, demographic histories and migration events. Markedly, advances in high-throughput genotyping technology have highlighted how the present-day genetic variation of human populations is the outcome of past population movements. In prehistoric times, the Mediterranean area experienced three significant migration waves whose legacy is retrieved in the mitochondrial pool of modern and ancient populations: the Paleolithic hunter-gatherers who survived and re-expanded from glacial refuges, the Neolithic farming societies that moved from the East, and the herders from the Pontic-Caspian steppes inaugurating the Bronze Age 1-13 .

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Mitochondrial variability in the Mediterranean area: a complex stage for human migrations

Cited by 13 publications

References 98 publications

Genomic ancestry, diet and microbiomes of Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers from San Teodoro cave

Genomic ancestry, diet and microbiomes of Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers from San Teodoro cave

Estimating the relative importance of demic and cultural diffusion in the spread of the Neolithic in Scandinavia

The mitogenome portrait of Umbria in Central Italy as depicted by contemporary inhabitants and pre-Roman remains

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