title: Mitochondrial DNA signals of late glacial recolonization of Europe from near eastern refugia.
abstract: Human populations, along with those of many other species, are thought to have contracted into a number of refuge areas at the height of the last Ice Age. European populations are believed to be, to a large extent, the descendants of the inhabitants of these refugia, and some extant mtDNA lineages can be traced to refugia in Franco-Cantabria (haplogroups H1, H3, V, and U5b1), the Italian Peninsula (U5b3), and the East European Plain (U4 and U5a). Parts of the Near East, such as the Levant, were also continuously inhabited throughout the Last Glacial Maximum, but unlike western and eastern Europe, no archaeological or genetic evidence for Late Glacial expansions into Europe from the Near East has hitherto been discovered. Here we report, on the basis of an enlarged whole-genome mitochondrial database, that a substantial, perhaps predominant, signal from mitochondrial haplogroups J and T, previously thought to have spread primarily from the Near East into Europe with the Neolithic population, may in fact reflect dispersals during the Late Glacial period, ∼19-12 thousand years (ka) ago.
authors.affiliation: School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, UK.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pala
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Olivieri
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Achilli
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Accetturo
authors.forename: Ene
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Metspalu
authors.forename: Maere
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reidla
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tamm
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karmin
authors.forename: Tuuli
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reisberg
authors.forename: Baharak
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hooshiar Kashani
authors.forename: Ugo A
authors.initials: UA
authors.lastname: Perego
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Carossa
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gandini
authors.forename: Joana B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Norman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Angerhofer
authors.forename: Sergei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rychkov
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Al-Zahery
authors.forename: Valerio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Carelli
authors.forename: Mohammad Hossein
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Sanati
authors.forename: Massoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Houshmand
authors.forename: Jiři
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hatina
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Macaulay
authors.forename: Luísa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: Scott R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Woodward
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Clive
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gamble
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Baird
authors.forename: Ornella
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Semino
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Villems
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Torroni
authors.forename: Martin B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Richards
mesh_terms: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005060:Europe; D005061:Europe, Eastern / Q000453:epidemiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006801:Humans; D008877:Middle East; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial