Ancestry of modern Europeans: contributions of ancient DNA

Abstract

Understanding the peopling history of Europe is crucial to comprehend the origins of modern populations. Of course, the analysis of current genetic data offers several explanations about human migration patterns which occurred on this continent, but it fails to explain precisely the impact of each demographic event. In this context, direct access to the DNA of ancient specimens allows the overcoming of recent demographic phenomena, which probably highly modified the constitution of the current European gene pool. In recent years, several DNA studies have been successfully conducted from ancient human remains thanks to the improvement of molecular techniques. They have brought new fundamental information on the peopling of Europe and allowed us to refine our understanding of European prehistory. In this review, we will detail all the ancient DNA studies performed to date on ancient European DNA from the Middle Paleolithic to the beginning of the protohistoric period.

Ancient mitochondrial DNA from the northern fringe of the Neolithic farming expansion in Europe sheds light on the dispersion process

“…It has recently been shown not only that the TRB individuals figure 2), however, mtDNA indicates that the population history in Iberia is complex during the Neolithic and that the haplogroup composition differ from that found in North/ Central Europe as well as between different areas in Iberia [24]. It has further been suggested that the mode of the Neolithic expansion may have been different in geographically distinct regions [65], although alternative explanations could relate to continuity from Mesolithic populations or admixture with North African groups. However, even though the Iberian individuals span from the early to the late Neolithic, they are much more homogeneous than the other investigated farmer groups, which would contradict admixture (figure 4).…”

Ancient mitochondrial lineages support the prehistoric maternal root of Basques in Northern Iberian Peninsula

“…All of them have been found widely distributed along the European prehistory, with several human remains scattered through this continent. 2,[30][31][32] These three subhaplogroups have the highest frequencies in the extant European populations. Strikingly, with the exception of T2b, whose frequency peak is located in the North of Italy, 33 subhaplogroups H1 and U5b reach their highest frequencies in the North of the Iberian Peninsula, specifically in the region where the Franco-Cantabrian refuge was settled during the Upper Palaeolithic.…”

“…1 Specifically, mtDNA is often used for the challenging genetic analysis of prehistoric remains. 1,2 DNA analysis of ancient remains has evidenced the arrival of some human groups from the Near East to the European continent during the Neolithic period. 3,4 Nonetheless, the effect of these humans on the pre-existing European genetic pool and how their culture expanded remains unclear.…”

Human paleogenetics of Europe – The known knowns and the known unknowns

“…These days, the number of aDNA records amounts to several hundreds of individuals for both America and Europe or Eurasia. The paleogenetic record of Europe has been summarised recently (e.g., Deguilloux et al, 2012;Pinhasi et al, 2012;Lacan et al, 2013), and implications for neighboring fields such as physical anthropology and zooarchaeology (considering domestication events accompanying major cultural transitions) have been discussed (e.g., Vigne, 2011;von Cramon-Taubadel and Pinhasi, 2011;Pinhasi and von Cramon-Taubadel, 2012;Larson and Burger, 2013). However, two more recent studies have substantially solidified the observed population events forming the European genetic landscape, resulting in a four-fold increase of aDNA data available from Europe, which warrants a fresh synthesis of the work to date (Fig.…”