title: Complete mitochondrial sequences from Mesolithic Sardinia.
abstract: Little is known about the genetic prehistory of Sardinia because of the scarcity of pre-Neolithic human remains. From a genetic perspective, modern Sardinians are known as genetic outliers in Europe, showing unusually high levels of internal diversity and a close relationship to early European Neolithic farmers. However, how far this peculiar genetic structure extends and how it originated was to date impossible to test. Here we present the first and oldest complete mitochondrial sequences from Sardinia, dated back to 10,000 yBP. These two individuals, while confirming a Mesolithic occupation of the island, belong to rare mtDNA lineages, which have never been found before in Mesolithic samples and that are currently present at low frequencies not only in Sardinia, but in the whole Europe. Preliminary Approximate Bayesian Computations, restricted by biased reference samples for Mesolithic Sardinia (the two typed samples) and Neolithic Europe (limited to central and north European sequences), suggest that the first inhabitants of the island have had a small or negligible contribution to the present-day Sardinian population, which mainly derives its genetic diversity from continental migration into the island by Neolithic times.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Firenze, 50122 Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Modi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biotecnologie, Università di Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tassi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biotecnologie, Università di Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberta Rosa
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Susca
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Firenze, 50122 Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vai
authors.affiliation: Fondazione Telethon, 20121 Milano, Italy.|Istituto di Tecnologie Biomediche, CNR, 20090 Segrate, Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Ermanno
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rizzi
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Tecnologie Biomediche, CNR, 20090 Segrate, Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianluca De
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bellis
authors.affiliation: LASP, Dipartimento di Storia, Beni Culturali e Territorio, Università di Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lugliè
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biotecnologie, Università di Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: Gloria
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gonzalez Fortes
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Firenze, 50122 Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lari
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biotecnologie, Università di Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barbujani
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Firenze, 50122 Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Caramelli
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biotecnologie, Università di Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghirotto
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*