0
Stychians, Samartians, Sardiania ect ect..
http://digital.library.adelaide.edu..../1/02whole.pdf
- Ancient Mitochondrial DNA Unravels Complex
Population History in North East Europe
- Mitochondrial Genome Sequencing in Mesolithic
North East Europe Unearths a New Sub-clade Within the Broadly
Distributed Human Haplogroup C1
- The Mitochondrial Gene Pool of Scythians of the
Rostov Area, Russia: A Melting Pot of Eurasian Influences
- Local Mitochondrial Continuity In central Sardinia:
Ancient DNA Evidence From The Bronze Age
Good stuff all aroundThe distribution of human genetic variability is the result of thousand years of
human evolutionary and population history. Geographical variation in the non-
recombining maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA has been studied in a wide array
of modern populations in order to reconstruct the migrations that have participated in
the spread of our ancestors on the planet. However, population genetic processes (e.g.,
replacement, genetic drift) can significantly bias the reconstruction and timing of past
migratory and demographic events inferred from the analysis of modern-day marker
distributions. This can lead to erroneous interpretations of ancient human population
history, a problem that potentially could be circumvented by the direct assessment of
genetic diversity in ancient humans. Despite important methodological problems
associated with contamination and post-mortem degradation of ancient DNA,
mitochondrial data have been previously obtained for a few spatially and temporally
diverse European populations. Mitochondrial data revealed additional levels of
complexity in the population history of Europeans that had remained unknown from
the study of modern populations. This justifies the relevance of broadening the
sampling of ancient mitochondrial DNA in both time and space.
This study aims at filling gaps in the knowledge of the genetic history of
eastern Europeans and of European genetic outliers, the Saami and the Sardinians.
This study presents a significant extension to the knowledge of past human
mitochondrial diversity. Ancient remains temporally-sampled from three groups of
European populations have been examined: north east Europeans (200 – 8,000 years
before present; N = 76), Iron Age Scythians of the Rostov area, Russia (2,300 – 2,600
years before present; N = 16), Bronze Age individuals of central Sardinia, Italy (3,200
– 3,400 years before present; N = 16). The genetic characterisation of these
populations principally relied on sequencing of the mitochondrial control region and
typing of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the coding region.
Changes in mitochondrial DNA structure were tracked through time by
comparing ancient and modern populations of Eurasia. Analysis of haplogroup data
included principal component analysis, multidimensional scaling, fixation index
computation and genetic distance mapping. Haplotypic data were compared by
haplotype sharing analysis, phylogenetic networks, Analysis of the Molecular
Variance and coalescent simulations. The sequencing of a whole mitochondrial
genome in a north east European Mesolithic individual lead to defining a new branch
within the human mitochondrial tree.
This work presents direct evidence that Mesolithic eastern Europeans belonged
to the same Palaeolithic/Mesolithic genetic background as central and northern
Europeans. It was also shown that prehistoric eastern Europeans were the recipients of
multiple migrations from the East in prehistory that had not been previously detected
and/or timed on the basis of modern mtDNA data. Ancient DNA also provided
insights in the genetic history of European genetic outliers; the Saami, whose ancestral
population still remain unidentified, and the Sardinians, whose genetic differentiation
is proposed to be the result of mating isolation since at least the Bronze Age. This
study demonstrates the power of aDNA to reveal previously unknown population
processes in the genetic history of modern Eurasians
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by evon
Bookmarks