Ötzi and Sardinians

[Graham]

28 February 2012 Last updated at 16:30
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17191398

Ancient Iceman 'had brown eyes'

"The Iceman" has been the subject of constant study for more than 20 years

New clues have emerged in what could be described as the world's oldest murder case: that of Oetzi the "Iceman", whose 5,300-year-old body was discovered frozen in the Italian Alps in 1991.

Oetzi's full genome has now been reported in Nature Communications.

It reveals that he had brown eyes, "O" blood type, was lactose intolerant, and was predisposed to heart disease.

They also show him to be the first documented case of infection by a Lyme disease bacterium.

Analysis of series of anomalies in the Iceman's DNA also revealed him to be more closely related to modern inhabitants of Corsica and Sardinia than to populations in the Alps, where he was unearthed.

'Really exciting'

The study revealed the fuller genetic picture as laid out in the nuclei of Oetzi's cells.

This nuclear DNA is both rarer and typically less well-preserved than the DNA within mitochondria, the cell's "power plant" which also contains DNA. Oetzi's mitochondrial DNA had already revealed some hints of his origins when it was fully sequenced in 2008.

Albert Zink, from the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Italy, said the nuclear DNA study was a great leap forward in one of the most widely studied specimens in science.

"We've been studying the Iceman for 20 years. We know so many things about him - where he lived, how he died - but very little was known about his genetics, the genetic information he was carrying around," he told BBC News.

Prof Zink said that next-generation "whole-genome" sequencing techniques made the finds possible.

"Whole-genome sequencing allows you to sequence the whole DNA out of one sample; that wasn't possible before in the same way.

"This was really exciting and I think it's just the start for a longer study on this level. We still would like to learn more from this data - we've only just started to analyse it."

[Onychodus]

Ötzi’s genome hints at heart disease, bacterial infection and common ancestry with modern-day Sardinians.

The world’s most famous frozen corpse has had his genome sequenced. An international team has today published the almost complete DNA sequence of Ötzi the Tyrolean Iceman in Nature Communications, and has found clues as to the whereabouts of his closest living relations.

...

Zink’s team also gathered information about Ötzi’s ancestry. His Y chromosome possesses mutations most commonly found among men from Sardinia and Corsica, and his nuclear genome puts his closest present-day relatives in the same area. Perhaps Ötzi’s kind once lived across Europe, before dying out or interbreeding with other groups everywhere except on those islands.

That makes sense, says Eske Willerslev, a palaeogenomicist at the University of Copenhagen. “Sardinians are a group that people have considered distinct from other Europeans, and in this regard it would be interesting if they were more widely distributed in the past.”

[Loddfafner]

I merged two threads reporting the same study. One emphasized the brownness of the Iceman's eyes; the other noted the Sardinian connection. There was no obvious category for it so I placed it here, in history and ethnogenesis.

[Albion]

common ancestry with modern-day Sardinians.

They're only saying that because he was G2a which occurs at its highest in Georgia and in Europe in Sardinia.
What they haven't mentioned is that it also occurs in highland regions around Europe, including the Alps at percentages at or under 5%. It even occurs in Wales and the Rhineland.



Europedia's theories... (take with a pinch of salt)