Mitochondrial DNA from El Mirador Cave (Atapuerca, Spain) Reveals the Heterogeneity of Chalcolithic Populations. Daniel Gómez Sánchez, Ińigo Olalde et al.,
PLoS ONE 2014. Open access → LINK [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105105]
excerpt
Abstract
Previous mitochondrial DNA analyses on ancient European remains have suggested that the current distribution of haplogroup H was modeled by the expansion of the Bell Beaker culture (ca 4,500–4,050 years BP) out of Iberia during the Chalcolithic period. However, little is known on the genetic composition of contemporaneous Iberian populations that do not carry the archaeological tool kit defining this culture. Here we have retrieved mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from 19 individuals from a Chalcolithic sample from El Mirador cave in Spain, dated to 4,760–4,200 years BP and we have analyzed the haplogroup composition in the context of modern and ancient populations. Regarding extant African, Asian and European populations, El Mirador shows affinities with Near Eastern groups. In different analyses with other ancient samples, El Mirador clusters with Middle and Late Neolithic populations from Germany, belonging to the Rössen, the Salzmünde and the Baalberge archaeological cultures but not with contemporaneous Bell Beakers. Our analyses support the existence of a common genetic signal between Western and Central Europe during the Middle and Late Neolithic and points to a heterogeneous genetic landscape among Chalcolithic groups.
With the next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies it has been possible to retrieve also prehistoric European genomic data. The first of these studies was the 7x coverage genome of the exceptionally well preserved Tyrolean Ice man, Ötzi, dated to about 5,300 years BP [23]. The second one was the partial genomic retrieval of one Neolithic farmer and four Neolithic hunter-gatherers from Scandinavia, dated between 4,400 and 5,300 years BP [24], [25], followed by the first retrieval of genomic data from two 7,000 years-old Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from La Brańa-Arintero (León, Northwestern Spain) [26], [27]. These and future autosomal loci studies will enlarge the possibilities of selective and demographic analyses of the European prehistoric populations.
TABLE 1: Mitochondrial DNA haplotype and haprogroup of El Mirador analysed
Recent analyses of partial and complete ancient mtDNA genomes have revealed different events associated to the distribution and diversity of these lineages in modern Europeans [20], [21]. The analysis of the mtDNA composition along time detected a previously unrecognised major genetic transition between the Early Neolithic and posterior Middle and Late Neolithic periods [20]. While many H haplogroup (the most common in modern Europeans, with frequencies around 40%) lineages were established by the Middle Neolithic period, a subsequent migration movement in the Late Neolithic associated to the Bell Beaker culture added further genetic complexity to the present-day populations. The genetic signature of H haplogroups increased up to 48.3% during the Bell Beaker period with respect to previous European cultures, suggesting a population expansion from Iberia to Central Europe [21].
However, another recent study based on the analysis of 629,443 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 934 individuals belonging to 53 human populations has uncovered a previously unrecognized signature of Northern European genes into the Iberian Peninsula [36]. Based on the length distribution of the linkage-disequilibrium blocks, it has been possible to date this admixture event to about 4,000 years BP, a figure roughly coincident with the spread of the Bell Beaker culture [36]. They interpret this signal as the result of a reverse migration from central Europe into Iberia after an initial Bell Beaker culture expansion from Iberia. This has been previously hypothesized from archaeological data [37] but so far has not been observed with ancient genetic data due to the current lack of genetic information from Iberian Bell Beaker groups.
The mtDNA composition of El Mirador is quite unique, and different to that found in other contemporaneous Bell Beaker populations and to present-day Iberians (Figure 2 and 3). This Chalcolithic population displays different mtDNA haplogroups that are currently present at higher frequency in the Near East populations than in continental Europe (e.g., X2, K, T2b); this could explain the clustering of El Mirador with Near Eastern populations in the PCA of modern populations (Figure 3). The Near East signature found here could correspond to the major genetic transition detected by Brandt et al. [21] between the Early and Late Neolithic and could indicate a subsequent migratory movement into Europe from the Near East, maybe associated to cultural transitions such as Megalithism.
In none of the analyses El Mirador sample shows close genetic affinities with a contemporaneous Bell Beaker population of 29 specimens gathered from three sites in Germany. The Bell Beaker mtDNA signal is characterized by high frequencies (around 50%) of H haplogroup that in El Mirador only reaches 26%. This heterogeneity in the genetic composition of geographically close populations adds further complexity to future reconstructions of these ancient expansions and correlates with the existence of contemporaneous groups with and without the typical Bell Beaker burial kit.
____________________________________________
American Journal of Physical Anthropology DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22074
Emerging genetic patterns of the european neolithic: Perspectives from a late neolithic bell beaker burial site in Germany
Esther J. Lee et al.
Abstract
The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture in Europe is associated with demographic changes that may have shifted the human gene pool of the region as a result of an influx of Neolithic farmers from the Near East. However, the genetic composition of populations after the earliest Neolithic, when a diverse mosaic of societies that had been fully engaged in agriculture for some time appeared in central Europe, is poorly known. At this period during the Late Neolithic (ca. 2,800–2,000 BC), regionally distinctive burial patterns associated with two different cultural groups emerge, Bell Beaker and Corded Ware, and may reflect differences in how these societies were organized. Ancient DNA analyses of human remains from the Late Neolithic Bell Beaker site of Kromsdorf, Germany showed distinct mitochondrial haplotypes for six individuals, which were classified under the haplogroups I1, K1, T1, U2, U5, and W5, and two males were identified as belonging to the Y haplogroup R1b. In contrast to other Late Neolithic societies in Europe emphasizing maintenance of biological relatedness in mortuary contexts, the diversity of maternal haplotypes evident at Kromsdorf suggests that burial practices of Bell Beaker communities operated outside of social norms based on shared maternal lineages. Furthermore, our data, along with those from previous studies, indicate that modern U5-lineages may have received little, if any, contribution from the Mesolithic or Neolithic mitochondrial gene pool.
Posts: 42930 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
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posted
I have proposed earlier that R1b was taken to Europe by the Beaker folk.The Lee et al paper's find of R1b dating Bell Beaker offers some support for my hypothesis.
quote:
The Beaker culture was present in Europe and North Africa. Sadly we have very few dates for the culture but it is possible that Africans may have taken R-M269 to Iberia/Europe.
Many researchers have committed on the large number of R-V88 who speak Afro-Asiatic languages. But few have noticed that many Niger-Congo speakers, Pgymies and Khoisan carry R-M269.
. Berniell-Lee et al (2009) found in their study that 5.2% carried Rb1*. The frequency of among the Bantu ranged from 2-20. The bearers of R1b1 among the Pygmy populations ranged from 1-25% (Berniell-Lee et al, 2009). The frequency of R1b1 among Guinea-Bissau populations was 12% (Carvalho et al,2010).Gonzalez et al, in The genetic landscape of Equatorial Guinea and the origin and migration routes of the Y chromosome haplogroup R-V88, found that 53 of the subjects in his study carried R-M269.
Given the Corded Ware/Beaker culture sites in North Africa, and widespread evidence of R-M269 from Guinea to South Africa offer the possibility that Sub-Saharan Africans may have introduced this haplogroup to western Eurasia.
I want to do a book or paper on Blacks in ancient Europe but, the genetic background of the early Europeans is foreever changing so we need to wait until there is more clarity in th field.
quote:Originally posted by Clyde Winters: Nice find.
This is more evidence of the expansion of hg H across the Straits from Africa into Iberia.
.
but the article doesn't say that it says this:
quote: The mtDNA composition of El Mirador is quite unique, and different to that found in other contemporaneous Bell Beaker populations and to present-day Iberians (Figure 2 and 3). This Chalcolithic population displays different mtDNA haplogroups that are currently present at higher frequency in the Near East populations than in continental Europe (e.g., X2, K, T2b); this could explain the clustering of El Mirador with Near Eastern populations in the PCA of modern populations (Figure 3). The Near East signature found here could correspond to the major genetic transition detected by Brandt et al. [21] between the Early and Late Neolithic and [b]could indicate a subsequent migratory movement into Europe from the Near East, maybe associated to cultural transitions such as Megalithism. [/b[
The Near East refers to the region encompassing Anatolia (the Asian portion of modern Turkey), the Levant (Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine), Georgia, Armenia, and Mesopotamia (Iraq).
Posts: 42930 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
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posted
I was talking about the following in the Lee et al article
quote:
American Journal of Physical Anthropology DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22074
Emerging genetic patterns of the european neolithic: Perspectives from a late neolithic bell beaker burial site in Germany
Esther J. Lee et al.
Abstract
The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture in Europe is associated with demographic changes that may have shifted the human gene pool of the region as a result of an influx of Neolithic farmers from the Near East. However, the genetic composition of populations after the earliest Neolithic, when a diverse mosaic of societies that had been fully engaged in agriculture for some time appeared in central Europe, is poorly known. At this period during the Late Neolithic (ca. 2,800–2,000 BC), regionally distinctive burial patterns associated with two different cultural groups emerge, Bell Beaker and Corded Ware, and may reflect differences in how these societies were organized. Ancient DNA analyses of human remains from the Late Neolithic Bell Beaker site of Kromsdorf, Germany showed distinct mitochondrial haplotypes for six individuals, which were classified under the haplogroups I1, K1, T1, U2, U5, and W5, and two males were identified as belonging to the Y haplogroup R1b. In contrast to other Late Neolithic societies in Europe emphasizing maintenance of biological relatedness in mortuary contexts, the diversity of maternal haplotypes evident at Kromsdorf suggests that burial practices of Bell Beaker communities operated outside of social norms based on shared maternal lineages. Furthermore, our data, along with those from previous studies, indicate that modern U5-lineages may have received little, if any, contribution from the Mesolithic or Neolithic mitochondrial gene pool.
quote:Originally posted by Clyde Winters: Nice find.
This is more evidence of the expansion of hg H across the Straits from Africa into Iberia.
.
but the article doesn't say that it says this:
quote: The mtDNA composition of El Mirador is quite unique, and different to that found in other contemporaneous Bell Beaker populations and to present-day Iberians (Figure 2 and 3). This Chalcolithic population displays different mtDNA haplogroups that are currently present at higher frequency in the Near East populations than in continental Europe (e.g., X2, K, T2b); this could explain the clustering of El Mirador with Near Eastern populations in the PCA of modern populations (Figure 3). The Near East signature found here could correspond to the major genetic transition detected by Brandt et al. [21] between the Early and Late Neolithic and [b]could indicate a subsequent migratory movement into Europe from the Near East, maybe associated to cultural transitions such as Megalithism. [/b[
The Near East refers to the region encompassing Anatolia (the Asian portion of modern Turkey), the Levant (Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine), Georgia, Armenia, and Mesopotamia (Iraq).
Good point but you do remember afterall, the Indo-Europeans were a nomadic group. The only population associated with Megalithism were the Kushites who expanded in the Near East from Africa, and subsequently spread across Eurasia.
Mitochondrial DNA from El Mirador Cave (Atapuerca, Spain) Reveals the Heterogeneity of Chalcolithic Populations. Daniel Gómez Sánchez, Ińigo Olalde et al.,
PLoS ONE 2014. Open access → LINK [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105105]
excerpt
Abstract
Previous mitochondrial DNA analyses on ancient European remains have suggested that the current distribution of haplogroup H was modeled by the expansion of the Bell Beaker culture (ca 4,500–4,050 years BP) out of Iberia during the Chalcolithic period. However, little is known on the genetic composition of contemporaneous Iberian populations that do not carry the archaeological tool kit defining this culture. Here we have retrieved mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from 19 individuals from a Chalcolithic sample from El Mirador cave in Spain, dated to 4,760–4,200 years BP and we have analyzed the haplogroup composition in the context of modern and ancient populations. Regarding extant African, Asian and European populations, El Mirador shows affinities with Near Eastern groups. In different analyses with other ancient samples, El Mirador clusters with Middle and Late Neolithic populations from Germany, belonging to the Rössen, the Salzmünde and the Baalberge archaeological cultures but not with contemporaneous Bell Beakers. Our analyses support the existence of a common genetic signal between Western and Central Europe during the Middle and Late Neolithic and points to a heterogeneous genetic landscape among Chalcolithic groups.
With the next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies it has been possible to retrieve also prehistoric European genomic data. The first of these studies was the 7x coverage genome of the exceptionally well preserved Tyrolean Ice man, Ötzi, dated to about 5,300 years BP [23]. The second one was the partial genomic retrieval of one Neolithic farmer and four Neolithic hunter-gatherers from Scandinavia, dated between 4,400 and 5,300 years BP [24], [25], followed by the first retrieval of genomic data from two 7,000 years-old Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from La Brańa-Arintero (León, Northwestern Spain) [26], [27]. These and future autosomal loci studies will enlarge the possibilities of selective and demographic analyses of the European prehistoric populations.
TABLE 1: Mitochondrial DNA haplotype and haprogroup of El Mirador analysed
Recent analyses of partial and complete ancient mtDNA genomes have revealed different events associated to the distribution and diversity of these lineages in modern Europeans [20], [21]. The analysis of the mtDNA composition along time detected a previously unrecognised major genetic transition between the Early Neolithic and posterior Middle and Late Neolithic periods [20]. While many H haplogroup (the most common in modern Europeans, with frequencies around 40%) lineages were established by the Middle Neolithic period, a subsequent migration movement in the Late Neolithic associated to the Bell Beaker culture added further genetic complexity to the present-day populations. The genetic signature of H haplogroups increased up to 48.3% during the Bell Beaker period with respect to previous European cultures, suggesting a population expansion from Iberia to Central Europe [21].
However, another recent study based on the analysis of 629,443 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 934 individuals belonging to 53 human populations has uncovered a previously unrecognized signature of Northern European genes into the Iberian Peninsula [36]. Based on the length distribution of the linkage-disequilibrium blocks, it has been possible to date this admixture event to about 4,000 years BP, a figure roughly coincident with the spread of the Bell Beaker culture [36]. They interpret this signal as the result of a reverse migration from central Europe into Iberia after an initial Bell Beaker culture expansion from Iberia. This has been previously hypothesized from archaeological data [37] but so far has not been observed with ancient genetic data due to the current lack of genetic information from Iberian Bell Beaker groups.
The mtDNA composition of El Mirador is quite unique, and different to that found in other contemporaneous Bell Beaker populations and to present-day Iberians (Figure 2 and 3). This Chalcolithic population displays different mtDNA haplogroups that are currently present at higher frequency in the Near East populations than in continental Europe (e.g., X2, K, T2b); this could explain the clustering of El Mirador with Near Eastern populations in the PCA of modern populations (Figure 3). The Near East signature found here could correspond to the major genetic transition detected by Brandt et al. [21] between the Early and Late Neolithic and could indicate a subsequent migratory movement into Europe from the Near East, maybe associated to cultural transitions such as Megalithism.
In none of the analyses El Mirador sample shows close genetic affinities with a contemporaneous Bell Beaker population of 29 specimens gathered from three sites in Germany. The Bell Beaker mtDNA signal is characterized by high frequencies (around 50%) of H haplogroup that in El Mirador only reaches 26%. This heterogeneity in the genetic composition of geographically close populations adds further complexity to future reconstructions of these ancient expansions and correlates with the existence of contemporaneous groups with and without the typical Bell Beaker burial kit.
____________________________________________
American Journal of Physical Anthropology DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22074
Emerging genetic patterns of the european neolithic: Perspectives from a late neolithic bell beaker burial site in Germany
Esther J. Lee et al.
Abstract
The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture in Europe is associated with demographic changes that may have shifted the human gene pool of the region as a result of an influx of Neolithic farmers from the Near East. However, the genetic composition of populations after the earliest Neolithic, when a diverse mosaic of societies that had been fully engaged in agriculture for some time appeared in central Europe, is poorly known. At this period during the Late Neolithic (ca. 2,800–2,000 BC), regionally distinctive burial patterns associated with two different cultural groups emerge, Bell Beaker and Corded Ware, and may reflect differences in how these societies were organized. Ancient DNA analyses of human remains from the Late Neolithic Bell Beaker site of Kromsdorf, Germany showed distinct mitochondrial haplotypes for six individuals, which were classified under the haplogroups I1, K1, T1, U2, U5, and W5, and two males were identified as belonging to the Y haplogroup R1b. In contrast to other Late Neolithic societies in Europe emphasizing maintenance of biological relatedness in mortuary contexts, the diversity of maternal haplotypes evident at Kromsdorf suggests that burial practices of Bell Beaker communities operated outside of social norms based on shared maternal lineages. Furthermore, our data, along with those from previous studies, indicate that modern U5-lineages may have received little, if any, contribution from the Mesolithic or Neolithic mitochondrial gene pool.
Posts: 12143 | From: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable | Registered: Jun 2007
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quote:Originally posted by xyyman: [QB] We discussed this alerady. IIRC the two H's was NEVER replicated unlike the other haplogroups. All others were duplicated by independent labs.
Plus - one of the H haplotype, which was NOT duplicated, was exactly the same as one of the technicians performing the test.
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