TY - JOUR

T1 - Genomic affinities of two 7,000-year-old Iberian hunter-gatherers

AU - Sánchez-Quinto, Federico

AU - Schroeder, Hannes

AU - Ramirez, Oscar

AU - Avila Arcos, Maria del Carmen

AU - Pybus, Marc

AU - Olalde, Iñigo

AU - Velazquez, Amhed M. V.

AU - Marcos, María Encina Prada

AU - Encinas, Julio Manuel Vidal

AU - Bertranpetit, Jaume

AU - Orlando, Ludovic Antoine Alexandre

AU - Gilbert, Tom

AU - Lalueza-Fox, Carles

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - The genetic background of the European Mesolithic and the extent of population replacement during the Neolithic [1–10] is poorly understood, both due to the scarcity of human remains from that period [11–18] and the inherent methodological difficulties of ancient DNA research. However, advances in sequencing technologies are both increasing data yields and providing supporting evidence for data authenticity, such as nucleotide misincorporation patterns [19–22]. We use these methods to characterize both the mitochondrial DNA genome and generate shotgun genomic data from two exceptionally well-preserved 7,000-year-old Mesolithic individuals from La Braña-Arintero site in León (Northwestern Spain) [23]. The mitochondria of both individuals are assigned to U5b2c1, a haplotype common among the small number of other previously studied Mesolithic individuals from Northern and Central Europe. This suggests a remarkable genetic uniformity and little phylogeographic structure over a large geographic area of the pre-Neolithic populations. Using Approximate Bayesian Computation, a model of genetic continuity from Mesolithic to Neolithic populations is poorly supported. Furthermore, analyses of 1.34% and 0.53% of their nuclear genomes, containing about 50,000 and 20,000 ancestry informative SNPs, respectively, show that these two Mesolithic individuals are not related to current populations from either the Iberian Peninsula or Southern Europe. Highlights ¿ The first complete Mesolithic mtDNA genome retrieved ¿ There is a remarkable genetic uniformity in Europe during the Mesolithic period ¿ Modern Iberians are not direct descendants of the 7,000-year-old hunter-gatherers ¿ Genetic discontinuity between Mesolithic/Neolithic populations supported by simulations

AB - The genetic background of the European Mesolithic and the extent of population replacement during the Neolithic [1–10] is poorly understood, both due to the scarcity of human remains from that period [11–18] and the inherent methodological difficulties of ancient DNA research. However, advances in sequencing technologies are both increasing data yields and providing supporting evidence for data authenticity, such as nucleotide misincorporation patterns [19–22]. We use these methods to characterize both the mitochondrial DNA genome and generate shotgun genomic data from two exceptionally well-preserved 7,000-year-old Mesolithic individuals from La Braña-Arintero site in León (Northwestern Spain) [23]. The mitochondria of both individuals are assigned to U5b2c1, a haplotype common among the small number of other previously studied Mesolithic individuals from Northern and Central Europe. This suggests a remarkable genetic uniformity and little phylogeographic structure over a large geographic area of the pre-Neolithic populations. Using Approximate Bayesian Computation, a model of genetic continuity from Mesolithic to Neolithic populations is poorly supported. Furthermore, analyses of 1.34% and 0.53% of their nuclear genomes, containing about 50,000 and 20,000 ancestry informative SNPs, respectively, show that these two Mesolithic individuals are not related to current populations from either the Iberian Peninsula or Southern Europe. Highlights ¿ The first complete Mesolithic mtDNA genome retrieved ¿ There is a remarkable genetic uniformity in Europe during the Mesolithic period ¿ Modern Iberians are not direct descendants of the 7,000-year-old hunter-gatherers ¿ Genetic discontinuity between Mesolithic/Neolithic populations supported by simulations

KW - biology

U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2012.06.005

DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2012.06.005

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 22748318

VL - 22

SP - 1494

EP - 1499

JO - Current Biology

JF - Current Biology

SN - 0960-9822

IS - 16

ER -