Ancient DNA Reveals Key Stages in the Formation of Central European Mitochondrial Genetic Diversity

2013/10/10 by Guido Brandt, Wolfgang Haak, Christina Adler +14 · 23 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Arts and Humanities · #Forensic and Genetic Research #Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research #Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies #Mitochondrial DNA #Key (lock) #Genetic diversity #Ancient DNA #Evolutionary biology #Diversity (politics) #Biology #Genetics #Computational biology #Gene #Ecology #Anthropology #Demography #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1241844

openalex publication_date 2013/10/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

The processes that shaped modern European mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation remain unclear. The initial peopling by Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers ~42,000 years ago and the immigration of Neolithic farmers into Europe ~8000 years ago appear to have played important roles but do not explain present-day mtDNA diversity. We generated mtDNA profiles of 364 individuals from prehistoric cultures in Central Europe to perform a chronological study, spanning the Early Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (5500 to 1550 calibrated years before the common era). We used this transect through time to identify four marked shifts in genetic composition during the Neolithic period, revealing a key role for Late Neolithic cultures in shaping modern Central European genetic diversity.

Citations

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Cited by

• Large-scale recent expansion of European patrilineages shown by population resequencing
• Genome flux and stasis in a five millennium transect of European prehistory
• Parallel palaeogenomic transects reveal complex genetic history of early European farmers
• Ancestry-constrained phylogenetic analysis supports the indo-european steppe hypothesis
• A massacre of early Neolithic farmers in the high Pyrenees at Els Trocs, Spain
• Goth migration induced changes in the matrilineal genetic structure of the central-east European population
• Ancient mitochondrial DNA from the northern fringe of the Neolithic farming expansion in Europe sheds light on the dispersion process
• The Neolithic Pitted Ware culture foragers were culturally but not genetically influenced by the Battle Axe culture herders
• Genomic Diversity and Admixture Differs for Stone-Age Scandinavian Foragers and Farmers
• Multi-scale ancient DNA analyses confirm the western origin of Michelsberg farmers and document probable practices of human sacrifice
• Massive Migrations? The Impact of Recent aDNA Studies on our View of Third Millennium Europe
• Subdivisions of haplogroups U and C encompass mitochondrial DNA lineages of Eneolithic–Early Bronze Age Kurgan populations of western North Pontic steppe
• Genomes from Verteba cave suggest diversity within the Trypillians in Ukraine
• Mitochondrial DNA analysis of eneolithic trypillians from Ukraine reveals neolithic farming genetic roots
• A Common Genetic Origin for Early Farmers from Mediterranean Cardial and Central European LBK Cultures
• Ancient DNA Reveals Matrilineal Continuity in Present-Day Poland over the Last Two Millennia
• A mosaic genetic structure of the human population living in the South Baltic region during the Iron Age
• Analysis of ancient human mitochondrial DNA from the Xiaohe cemetery: insights into prehistoric population movements in the Tarim Basin, China
• Diverse origin of mitochondrial lineages in Iron Age Black Sea Scythians
• A genetic chronology for the Indian Subcontinent points to heavily sex-biased dispersals
• Early Neolithic genomes from the eastern Fertile Crescent
• Funnelbeaker culture [wikipedia]
• Haplogroup I (mtDNA) [wikipedia]