A European population in Minoan Bronze Age Crete

Hughey, Jeffery R.; Paschou, Peristera; Drineas, Petros; Mastropaolo, Donald; Lotakis, Dimitra; Navas, Patrick A.; Michalodimitrakis, Manolis; Stamatoyannopoulos, J; Stamatoyannopoulos, George

doi:10.1038/ncomms2871

Cited by 37 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Moreover, this result is in agreement with the archaeological information pointing at a Near Eastern Neolithic origin of the Bronze Age Cretan culture [55].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Ancient DNA Analysis of 8000 B.C. Near Eastern Farmers Supports an Early Neolithic Pioneer Maritime Colonization of Mainland Europe through Cyprus and the Aegean Islands

et al. 2014

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The genetic impact associated to the Neolithic spread in Europe has been widely debated over the last 20 years. Within this context, ancient DNA studies have provided a more reliable picture by directly analyzing the protagonist populations at different regions in Europe. However, the lack of available data from the original Near Eastern farmers has limited the achieved conclusions, preventing the formulation of continental models of Neolithic expansion. Here we address this issue by presenting mitochondrial DNA data of the original Near-Eastern Neolithic communities with the aim of providing the adequate background for the interpretation of Neolithic genetic data from European samples. Sixty-three skeletons from the Pre Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) sites of Tell Halula, Tell Ramad and Dja'de El Mughara dating between 8,700–6,600 cal. B.C. were analyzed, and 15 validated mitochondrial DNA profiles were recovered. In order to estimate the demographic contribution of the first farmers to both Central European and Western Mediterranean Neolithic cultures, haplotype and haplogroup diversities in the PPNB sample were compared using phylogeographic and population genetic analyses to available ancient DNA data from human remains belonging to the Linearbandkeramik-Alföldi Vonaldiszes Kerámia and Cardial/Epicardial cultures. We also searched for possible signatures of the original Neolithic expansion over the modern Near Eastern and South European genetic pools, and tried to infer possible routes of expansion by comparing the obtained results to a database of 60 modern populations from both regions. Comparisons performed among the 3 ancient datasets allowed us to identify K and N-derived mitochondrial DNA haplogroups as potential markers of the Neolithic expansion, whose genetic signature would have reached both the Iberian coasts and the Central European plain. Moreover, the observed genetic affinities between the PPNB samples and the modern populations of Cyprus and Crete seem to suggest that the Neolithic was first introduced into Europe through pioneer seafaring colonization.

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“…Moreover, this result is in agreement with the archaeological information pointing at a Near Eastern Neolithic origin of the Bronze Age Cretan culture [55].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Ancient DNA Analysis of 8000 B.C. Near Eastern Farmers Supports an Early Neolithic Pioneer Maritime Colonization of Mainland Europe through Cyprus and the Aegean Islands

et al. 2014

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“…Genetic studies in modern Cretan populations using Y-chromosomal or mitochondrial DNA to infer ancient ancestry of the Bronze Age Cretans have indicated Anatolian45, Middle Eastern and Balkan4647 origins. A recent mitochondrial DNA study refuted the hypothesis of North African Ancestry, and Minoans were found to show the strongest relationships with Neolithic Spanish, Neolithic Italian and modern European populations as well as with the modern inhabitants of the Lassithi plateau in Central Crete48. Our MDS results are in agreement with the MANOLIS isolate showing genetic proximity to EUR populations.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Genetic characterization of Greek population isolates reveals strong genetic drift at missense and trait-associated variants

et al. 2014

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Isolated populations are emerging as a powerful study design in the search for low frequency and rare variant associations with complex phenotypes. Here we genotype 2,296 samples from two isolated Greek populations, the Pomak villages (HELIC-Pomak) in the North of Greece; and the Mylopotamos villages (HELIC-MANOLIS) on Crete. We compare their genomic characteristics to the general Greek population and establish them as genetic isolates. In the MANOLIS cohort we observe an enrichment of missense variants amongst the variants that have drifted up in frequency by >5 fold. In the Pomak cohort we find novel associations at variants on chr11p15.4 showing large allele frequency increases (from 0.2% in the general Greek population to 4.6% in the isolate) with haematological traits, for example with mean corpuscular volume (rs7116019, p=2.3×10−26). We replicate this association in a second set of Pomak samples (combined p=2.0×10−36). We demonstrate significant power gains in detecting medical trait associations.

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“…However, the chances of retrieving nuclear data at a sufficiently high level of complexity decrease as we gradually move from cooler and temperate climate zones to warmer and more challenging regions (Burger et al, 1999;Bollongino and Vigne, 2008;Pruvost et al, 2008), such as the Mediterranean coastlines including North Africa and the Near and Middle East, which promise to hold the ultimate answer to many of the questions tackled here. In all likelihood and despite great technological advances (Meyer et al, 2012;Gansauge and Meyer, 2013), aDNA studies in these regions will require intensive screening of many samples in order to find ones with suitable DNA preservation, and will often remain restricted to mtDNA evidence for the majority of specimens (Salamon et al, 2005;Hughey et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%