Ancient DNA from Syria and Iberia

A post from Jean M brought to my attention a 2005 doctoral thesis by Eva Fernández Domínguez featuring ancient DNA results for samples from the Middle East and Iberia. The "surprising conclusion":
Haplotype and haplogroup frequencies in the ancient samples from Middle East and the Iberian Peninsula are clearly different from those present nowadays in the same geographical regions. Haplogroups related to neolithic expansion to Europe - J, U3, W and X - are absent in ancient Middle Eastern samples.
Mitochondrial DNA haplogroups represented in the Neolithic Syrian sample: H, H5, R, HV, and L2a1. Fernández reports other interesting results not mentioned by Jean M, such as 50% sub-Saharan lineages across two Chalcolithic Iberian sites; from the conclusion:
37. La presencia de casi un 50% de linajes subsaharianos L1b, L2 y L3 en los yacimientos calcolíticos de Abauntz y Tres Montes, en Navarra, sugiere la existencia en el pasado de un flujo genético importante desde África hacia esta región geográfica. La baja frecuencia de estos linajes en la población actual española apunta a que se ha producido un recambio genético desde el Calcolítico. La entrada de linajes africanos pudo darse durante el Paleolítico, durante el Neolítico, o durante ambos períodos. La presencia de secuencias filogenéticamente relacionadas en yacimientos calcolíticos de la Península Ibérica y en muestras neolíticas y calcolíticas de Oriente Próximo apunta al Neolítico como momento más probable de entrada en la península de estos linajes.
Update: Jean M comments that "it looks as though the reported L3 is actually R or H20 on the present tree".

4 comments:

Jean said...

I wouldn't get too excited by the reported mtDNA L. I'm still going through the thesis, but it looks as though the reported L3 is actually R or H20 on the present tree. I commented on that in an addendum to a previous blog post: http://dna-forums.com/index.php?/blog/2/entry-52-neolithic-genes-and-iberians/

The problem is that this testing and the assignment to haplogroups was done years ago. Not only was the testing restricted to HVR1, but far fewer markers were known.

However the L2a1 in Tell Halula looks solid.

n/a said...

Jean,

Thanks for the comment.

Statsaholic said...

"Haplogroups related to neolithic expansion to Europe - J, U3, W and X - are absent in ancient Middle Eastern samples."

I'm not sure what that's supposed to imply.

n/a said...

Reginald,

There are several possibilities. Follow the links.