Ancient DNA reveals the genomic footprints of Stone-Age Europeans

Mattias Jakobsson
Uppsala University, Sweeden - mattias.jakobsson@ebc.uu.se

(Seminar in English)

Genomic information from ancient human remains is beginning to show its full potential for learning about human prehistory. I review the last few years’ dramatic finds about European prehistory based on genomic data from humans that lived many millennia ago and relate it to modern-day patterns of genomic variation. The early times, the upper Paleolithic, appears to contain several population turn-overs followed by more stable populations after the Last Glacial Maximum and during the Mesolithic. Some 11,000 years ago the migrations driving the Neolithic transition start from around Anatolia and reach the  north and the west of Europe millennia later. This event is followed by major migrations during the Bronze age. These findings show that culture and lifestyle were major determinants of genomic differentiation and similarity in pre-historic Europe rather than geography as is the case today.

Recent publications:

Goldberg et al. (2016) Familial migration of the Neolithic contrasts massive male migration during Bronze Age in Europe inferred from ancient X chromosomes. BioRxiv. doi:10.1101/078360

Günther & Jakobsson (2016) Genes mirror migrations and cultures in prehistoric Europe — a population genomic perspective. Current Opinion in Genetics & Development 41: 115–123.

Günther et al. (2015) Ancient genomes link early farmers from Atapuerca in Spain to modern-day Basques. PNAS 38: 11917–11922.

Skoglund et al. (2014) Genomic Diversity and Admixture Differs for Stone-Age Scandinavian Foragers and Farmers. Science 344: 747-750