Dataset Information

The genetic history of Ice Age Europe.

ABSTRACT: Modern humans arrived in Europe ~45,000 years ago, but little is known about their genetic composition before the start of farming ~8,500 years ago. Here we analyse genome-wide data from 51 Eurasians from ~45,000-7,000 years ago. Over this time, the proportion of Neanderthal DNA decreased from 3-6% to around 2%, consistent with natural selection against Neanderthal variants in modern humans. Whereas there is no evidence of the earliest modern humans in Europe contributing to the genetic composition of present-day Europeans, all individuals between ~37,000 and ~14,000 years ago descended from a single founder population which forms part of the ancestry of present-day Europeans. An ~35,000-year-old individual from northwest Europe represents an early branch of this founder population which was then displaced across a broad region, before reappearing in southwest Europe at the height of the last Ice Age ~19,000 years ago. During the major warming period after ~14,000 years ago, a genetic component related to present-day Near Easterners became widespread in Europe. These results document how population turnover and migration have been recurring themes of European prehistory.

SUBMITTER: Fu Q

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4943878 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The genetic history of Ice Age Europe.

Fu Qiaomei Q Posth Cosimo C Hajdinjak Mateja M Petr Martin M Mallick Swapan S Fernandes Daniel D Furtwängler Anja A Haak Wolfgang W Meyer Matthias M Mittnik Alissa A Nickel Birgit B Peltzer Alexander A Rohland Nadin N Slon Viviane V Talamo Sahra S Lazaridis Iosif I Lipson Mark M Mathieson Iain I Schiffels Stephan S Skoglund Pontus P Derevianko Anatoly P AP Drozdov Nikolai N Slavinsky Vyacheslav V Tsybankov Alexander A Cremonesi Renata Grifoni RG Mallegni Francesco F Gély Bernard B Vacca Eligio E Morales Manuel R González MR Straus Lawrence G LG Neugebauer-Maresch Christine C Teschler-Nicola Maria M Constantin Silviu S Moldovan Oana Teodora OT Benazzi Stefano S Peresani Marco M Coppola Donato D Lari Martina M Ricci Stefano S Ronchitelli Annamaria A Valentin Frédérique F Thevenet Corinne C Wehrberger Kurt K Grigorescu Dan D Rougier Hélène H Crevecoeur Isabelle I Flas Damien D Semal Patrick P Mannino Marcello A MA Cupillard Christophe C Bocherens Hervé H Conard Nicholas J NJ Harvati Katerina K Moiseyev Vyacheslav V Drucker Dorothée G DG Svoboda Jiří J Richards Michael P MP Caramelli David D Pinhasi Ron R Kelso Janet J Patterson Nick N Krause Johannes J Pääbo Svante S Reich David D

Nature 20160502 7606

Modern humans arrived in Europe ~45,000 years ago, but little is known about their genetic composition before the start of farming ~8,500 years ago. Here we analyse genome-wide data from 51 Eurasians from ~45,000-7,000 years ago. Over this time, the proportion of Neanderthal DNA decreased from 3-6% to around 2%, consistent with natural selection against Neanderthal variants in modern humans. Whereas there is no evidence of the earliest modern humans in Europe contributing to the genetic composit ...[more]

PMID: 27135931

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Project description:BackgroundUnderstanding the evolution of cultivated barley is important for two reasons. First, the evolutionary relationships between different landraces might provide information on the spread and subsequent development of barley cultivation, including the adaptation of the crop to new environments and its response to human selection. Second, evolutionary information would enable landraces with similar traits but different genetic backgrounds to be identified, providing alternative strategies for the introduction of these traits into modern germplasm.ResultsThe evolutionary relationships between 651 barley landraces were inferred from the genotypes for 24 microsatellites. The landraces could be divided into nine populations, each with a different geographical distribution. Comparisons with ear row number, caryopsis structure, seasonal growth habit and flowering time revealed a degree of association between population structure and phenotype, and analysis of climate variables indicated that the landraces are adapted, at least to some extent, to their environment. Human selection and/or environmental adaptation may therefore have played a role in the origin and/or maintenance of one or more of the barley landrace populations. There was also evidence that at least some of the population structure derived from geographical partitioning set up during the initial spread of barley cultivation into Europe, or reflected the later introduction of novel varieties. In particular, three closely-related populations were made up almost entirely of plants with the daylength nonresponsive version of the photoperiod response gene PPD-H1, conferring adaptation to the long annual growth season of northern Europe. These three populations probably originated in the eastern Fertile Crescent and entered Europe after the initial spread of agriculture.ConclusionsThe discovery of population structure, combined with knowledge of associated phenotypes and environmental adaptations, enables a rational approach to identification of landraces that might be used as sources of germplasm for breeding programs. The population structure also enables hypotheses concerning the prehistoric spread and development of agriculture to be addressed.

Dataset Information

The genetic history of Ice Age Europe.

Publications

The genetic history of Ice Age Europe.

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