title: Neolithic patrilineal signals indicate that the Armenian plateau was repopulated by agriculturalists.
abstract: Armenia, situated between the Black and Caspian Seas, lies at the junction of Turkey, Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan and former Mesopotamia. This geographic position made it a potential contact zone between Eastern and Western civilizations. In this investigation, we assess Y-chromosomal diversity in four geographically distinct populations that represent the extent of historical Armenia. We find a striking prominence of haplogroups previously implicated with the Agricultural Revolution in the Near East, including the J2a-M410-, R1b1b1(*)-L23-, G2a-P15- and J1-M267-derived lineages. Given that the Last Glacial Maximum event in the Armenian plateau occured a few millennia before the Neolithic era, we envision a scenario in which its repopulation was achieved mainly by the arrival of farmers from the Fertile Crescent temporally coincident with the initial inception of farming in Greece. However, we detect very restricted genetic affinities with Europe that suggest any later cultural diffusions from Armenia to Europe were not associated with substantial amounts of paternal gene flow, despite the presence of closely related Indo-European languages in both Armenia and Southeast Europe.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA. herrerar@fiu.edu
authors.forename: Kristian J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Herrera
authors.forename: Robert K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Lowery
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hadden
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Calderon
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chiou
authors.forename: Levon
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yepiskoposyan
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Regueiro
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Underhill
authors.forename: Rene J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Herrera
mesh_terms: D001136:Armenia / Q000208:ethnology; D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y; D051456:Gene Flow; D005787:Gene Frequency; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
references.citation: Mol Biol Evol. 1999 Jan;16(1):37-48
references.pmid: 10331250
references.citation: Am J Hum Genet. 2004 May;74(5):1023-34
references.pmid: 15069642
references.citation: Ann Hum Genet. 2009 Nov;73(Pt 6):568-81
references.pmid: 19686289
references.citation: Hum Genet. 2004 Oct;115(5):357-71
references.pmid: 15322918
references.citation: Eur J Hum Genet. 2011 Jan;19(1):70-5
references.pmid: 20823913
references.citation: Mol Ecol Resour. 2010 May;10(3):564-7
references.pmid: 21565059
references.citation: Am J Hum Genet. 2004 Jan;74(1):50-61
references.pmid: 14691732
references.citation: Hum Genet. 2003 Mar;112(3):255-61
references.pmid: 12596050
references.citation: Eur J Hum Genet. 2009 Jun;17(6):820-30
references.pmid: 19107149
references.citation: Nature. 2003 Nov 27;426(6965):435-9
references.pmid: 14647380
references.citation: Eur J Hum Genet. 2010 Apr;18(4):479-84
references.pmid: 19888303
references.citation: PLoS Biol. 2005 Dec;3(12):e410
references.pmid: 16292981
references.citation: Ann Hum Genet. 2008 Mar;72(Pt 2):205-14
references.pmid: 18269686
references.citation: Am J Hum Genet. 2008 Apr;82(4):873-82
references.pmid: 18374297
references.citation: PLoS Biol. 2010 Jan 19;8(1):e1000285
references.pmid: 20087410
references.citation: Am J Hum Genet. 2004 Aug;75(2):338-45
references.pmid: 15202071
references.citation: Hum Biol. 2011 Feb;83(1):39-53
references.pmid: 21453003
references.citation: Am J Hum Genet. 2008 Nov;83(5):633-42
references.pmid: 18976729
references.citation: J Hum Evol. 2008 Nov;55(5):803-16
references.pmid: 18930308
references.citation: PLoS One. 2010 Jun 09;5(6):e10984
references.pmid: 20543959
references.citation: Ann Hum Genet. 2004 May;68(Pt 3):205-21
references.pmid: 15180701
references.citation: Hum Genet. 2001 Dec;109(6):659-74
references.pmid: 11810279
references.citation: Eur J Hum Genet. 2011 Mar;19(3):334-40
references.pmid: 21119711
references.citation: Am J Hum Genet. 2006 Feb;78(2):202-21
references.pmid: 16400607
references.citation: Genome Res. 2008 May;18(5):830-8
references.pmid: 18385274
references.citation: Forensic Sci Int. 2005 Feb 10;148(1):69-73
references.pmid: 15607593
references.citation: Hum Genet. 2004 Jan;114(2):127-48
references.pmid: 14586639
references.citation: Eur J Hum Genet. 2010 Mar;18(3):348-53
references.pmid: 19826455
references.citation: Int J Legal Med. 2009 Nov;123(6):471-82
references.pmid: 19322579
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 2001 Jun 7;268(1472):1197-206
references.pmid: 11375109
references.citation: Eur J Hum Genet. 2001 Apr;9(4):267-72
references.pmid: 11313770
references.citation: Bioinformatics. 2010 Sep 15;26(18):i440-5
references.pmid: 20823305
references.citation: Eur J Hum Genet. 2011 Jan;19(1):95-101
references.pmid: 20736979
references.citation: Eur J Hum Genet. 2007 Apr;15(4):485-93
references.pmid: 17264870
references.citation: Electrophoresis. 2008 Jun;29(11):2419-23
references.pmid: 18449858
references.citation: PLoS Biol. 2010 Nov 09;8(11):e1000536
references.pmid: 21085689
references.citation: Annu Rev Genet. 2007;41:539-64
references.pmid: 18076332
references.citation: Am J Hum Genet. 1995 Apr;56(4):951-62
references.pmid: 7717406
references.citation: Int J Legal Med. 2008 May;122(3):219-23
references.pmid: 18228030