title: Ancient mitochondrial DNA from the northern fringe of the Neolithic farming expansion in Europe sheds light on the dispersion process.
abstract: The European Neolithization process started around 12 000 years ago in the Near East. The introduction of agriculture spread north and west throughout Europe and a key question has been if this was brought about by migrating individuals, by an exchange of ideas or a by a mixture of these. The earliest farming evidence in Scandinavia is found within the Funnel Beaker Culture complex (Trichterbecherkultur, TRB) which represents the northernmost extension of Neolithic farmers in Europe. The TRB coexisted for almost a millennium with hunter-gatherers of the Pitted Ware Cultural complex (PWC). If migration was a substantial part of the Neolithization, even the northerly TRB community would display a closer genetic affinity to other farmer populations than to hunter-gatherer populations. We deep-sequenced the mitochondrial hypervariable region 1 from seven farmers (six TRB and one Battle Axe complex, BAC) and 13 hunter-gatherers (PWC) and authenticated the sequences using postmortem DNA damage patterns. A comparison with 124 previously published sequences from prehistoric Europe shows that the TRB individuals share a close affinity to Central European farmer populations, and that they are distinct from hunter-gatherer groups, including the geographically close and partially contemporary PWC that show a close affinity to the European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden helena.malmstrom@ebc.uu.se.
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Malmström
authors.affiliation: Archaeological Research Laboratory, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden Durham Evolution and Ancient DNA, Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Linderholm
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Pontus
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Skoglund
authors.affiliation: Osteolarchaeological Research Laboratory, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Storå
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sjödin
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Volgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: M Thomas P
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Gilbert
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Genetics and Forensic Toxicology, National Board of Forensic Medicine, Linköping University, Artillerigatan 12, 587 58, Linköping, Sweden Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Artillerigatan 12, 587 58, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Gunilla
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Holmlund
authors.affiliation: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Volgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Eske
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Willerslev
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Mattias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jakobsson
authors.affiliation: Archaeological Research Laboratory, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lidén
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden Archaeological Research Laboratory, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Götherström
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000266:history; D001483:Base Sequence; D019295:Computational Biology; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics* / Q000266:history; D051456:Gene Flow; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D049690:History, Ancient; D063426:Human Migration / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011157:Population Dynamics; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013548:Sweden
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: Battle Axe Culture; Funnel Beaker Culture; Neolithic; Pitted Ware Culture; ancient DNA; mtDNA