title: Mapping human dispersals into the Horn of Africa from Arabian Ice Age refugia using mitogenomes.
abstract: Rare mitochondrial lineages with relict distributions can sometimes be disproportionately informative about deep events in human prehistory. We have studied one such lineage, haplogroup R0a, which uniquely is most frequent in Arabia and the Horn of Africa, but is distributed much more widely, from Europe to India. We conclude that: (1) the lineage ancestral to R0a is more ancient than previously thought, with a relict distribution across the Mediterranean/Southwest Asia; (2) R0a has a much deeper presence in Arabia than previously thought, highlighting the role of at least one Pleistocene glacial refugium, perhaps on the Red Sea plains; (3) the main episode of dispersal into Eastern Africa, at least concerning maternal lineages, was at the end of the Late Glacial, due to major expansions from one or more refugia in Arabia; (4) there was likely a minor Late Glacial/early postglacial dispersal from Arabia through the Levant and into Europe, possibly alongside other lineages from a Levantine refugium; and (5) the presence of R0a in Southwest Arabia in the Holocene at the nexus of a trading network that developed after ~3 ka between Africa and the Indian Ocean led to some gene flow even further afield, into Iran, Pakistan and India.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy.|School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, UK.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gandini
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy.|Dipartimento di Chimica, Biologia e Biotecnologie, Università di Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Achilli
authors.affiliation: School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, UK.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pala
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bodner
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brandini
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Balazs
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Egyed
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ferretti
authors.affiliation: Unidade de Xenética, Departamento de Anatomía Patolóxica e Ciencias Forenses, and Instituto de Ciencias Forenses, Facultade de Medicina, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela 15782, Galicia, Spain.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gómez-Carballa
authors.affiliation: Unidade de Xenética, Departamento de Anatomía Patolóxica e Ciencias Forenses, and Instituto de Ciencias Forenses, Facultade de Medicina, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela 15782, Galicia, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Salas
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "Charles Darwin", Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Rosaria
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Scozzari
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "Charles Darwin", Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Fulvio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cruciani
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coppa
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.|Forensic Science Program, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Walther
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Parson
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Ornella
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Semino
authors.affiliation: CBMA (Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology), Department of Biology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Torroni
authors.affiliation: School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, UK.
authors.forename: Martin B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "L. Spallanzani", Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Olivieri
mesh_terms: D000351:Africa, Eastern; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D051456:Gene Flow; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D049690:History, Ancient; D063426:Human Migration / Q000266:history* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D046448:Ice Cover; D019083:Mediterranean Region; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography; D000068236:Refugium; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial