title: Over the sands and far away: interpreting an Iberian mitochondrial lineage with ancient Western African origins.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is an ongoing effort to characterize the genetic links between Africa and Europe, mostly using lineages and haplotypes that are specific to one continent but had an ancient origin in the other. Mitochondrial DNA has been proven to be a very useful tool for this purpose since a high number of putatively European-specific variants of the African L* lineages have been defined over the years. Due to their geographic locations, Spain and Portugal seem to be ideal places for searching for these lineages.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five members of a minor branch of haplogroup L3f were found in recent DNA samplings in the region of Asturias (Northern Spain), which is known for its historical isolation. The frequency of L3f in this population (≈1%) is unexpectedly high in comparison with other related lineages in Europe. Complete mitochondrial DNA sequencing of these L3f lineages, as well phylogenetic and phylogeographic comparative analyses have been performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The L3f variant found in Asturias seems to constitute an Iberian-specific haplogroup, distantly related to lineages in Northern Africa and with a deep ancestry in Western Africa. Coalescent algorithms estimate the minimum arrival time as 8,000 years ago, and a possible route through the Gibraltar Strait.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results are concordant with a previously proposed Neolithic connection between Southern Europe and Western Africa, which might be key to the proper understanding of the ancient links between these two continents.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología de Organismos y Sistemas, Universidad de Oviedo, Asturias, 33071, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Pardiñas
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.forename: Agustín
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roca
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: García-Vazquez
authors.forename: Belén
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: López
mesh_terms: D000354:Africa, Western; D044383:Black People / Q000235:genetics*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013030:Spain; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial