Population genomics of Mesolithic Scandinavia: Investigating early postglacial migration routes and high-latitude adaptation

Download

10.1371journal.pbio.2003703.pdf

Date

2018-1-9

Author

Günther, Torsten
Malmström, Helena
Svensson, Emma M.
Omrak, Ayça
Sánchez-Quinto, Federico
Kılınç, Gülşah M.
Krzewińska, Maja
Eriksson, Gunilla
Fraser, Magdalena
Edlund, Hanna
Munters, Arielle R.
Coutinho, Alexandra
Simões, Luciana G.
Vicente, Mário
Sjölander, Anders
Jansen Sellevold, Berit
Jørgensen, Roger
Claes, Peter
Shriver, Mark D.
Valdiosera, Cristina
Netea, Mihai G.
Apel, Jan
Lidén, Kerstin
Skar, Birgitte
Storå, Jan
Götherström, Anders
Jakobsson, Mattias

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

213
views

156
downloads

Scandinavia was one of the last geographic areas in Europe to become habitable for humans after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). However, the routes and genetic composition of these postglacial migrants remain unclear. We sequenced the genomes, up to 57x coverage, of seven hunter-gatherers excavated across Scandinavia and dated from 9,500-6,000 years before present (BP). Surprisingly, among the Scandinavian Mesolithic individuals, the genetic data display an east-west genetic gradient that opposes the pattern seen in other parts of Mesolithic Europe. Our results suggest two different early postglacial migrations into Scandinavia: initially from the south, and later, from the northeast. The latter followed the ice-free Norwegian north Atlantic coast, along which novel and advanced pressure-blade stone-tool techniques may have spread. These two groups met and mixed in Scandinavia, creating a genetically diverse population, which shows patterns of genetic adaptation to high latitude environments. These potential adaptations include high frequencies of low pigmentation variants and a gene region associated with physical performance, which shows strong continuity into modern-day northern Europeans.

Subject Keywords

General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, General Immunology and Microbiology, General Neuroscience, General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, GENETIC LEGACY, EARLY FARMERS, ADMIXTURE, SEQUENCE, TECHNOLOGY, CONTAMINATION, NEANDERTHAL, TRANSITION

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/51931

Journal

PLOS Biology

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003703

Collections

Department of Biology, Article

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Genomic and Strontium Isotope Variation Reveal Immigration Patterns in a Viking Age Town Krzewinska, Maja; Kjellstrom, Anna; Guenther, Torsten; Hedenstierna-Jonson, Charlotte; Zachrisson, Torun; Omrak, Ayca; Yaka, Reyhan; Kilinc, Gulsah Merve; Somel, Mehmet; Sobrado, Veronica; Evans, Jane; Knipper, Conine; Jakobsson, Mattias; Stora, Jan; Gotherstrom, Anders (Elsevier BV, 2018-09-10) The impact of human mobility on the northern European urban populations during the Viking and Early Middle Ages and its repercussions in Scandinavia itself are still largely unexplored. Our study of the demographics in the final phase of the Viking era is the first comprehensive multidisciplinary investigation that includes genetics, isotopes, archaeology, and osteology on a larger scale. This early Christian dataset is particularly important as the earlier common pagan burial tradition during the Iron Age ...
Population Genomics Reveal Recent Speciation and Rapid Evolutionary Adaptation in Polar Bears Liu, Shiping; et. al. (Elsevier BV, 2014-05-08) Polar bears are uniquely adapted to life in the High Arctic and have undergone drastic physiological changes in response to Arctic climates and a hyper-lipid diet of primarily marine mammal prey. We analyzed 89 complete genomes of polar bear and brown bear using population genomic modeling and show that the species diverged only 479-343 thousand years BP. We find that genes on the polar bear lineage have been under stronger positive selection than in brown bears; nine of the top 16 genes under strong positi...
Spatial analysis of commercially important Lessepsian fish invasion in the Mediterranean Sea Fach Salihoğlu, Bettina Andrea; Ureten, Mehmet Alp (2021-08-01) The Mediterranean Sea is home to numerous invasive species that migrated through the Suez Canal, some of which have already established thriving populations. These Lessepsian species account for 2/3 of all alien species recorded in the sea today and impact native species and the equilibrium of the marine ecosystem. One example is Threadfin bream (Nemipterus randalli), a benthic fish with a pelagic larval stage, which was first detected in 2005 off the coast of Israel and has been a particular successful inv...
Conservation Focus on Europe: Major Conservation Policy Issues That Need to Be Informed by Conservation Science Pullin, Andrew S.; Baldi, Andras; Can, Ozgun Emre; Dieterich, Martin; Kati, Vassiliki; Livoreil, Barbara; Lovei, Gabor; Mihok, Barbara; Nevin, Owen; Selva, Nuria; Sousa-Pinto, Isabel (2009-08-01) Europe is one of the world's most densely populated continents and has a long history of human-dominated land- and seascapes. Europe is also at the forefront of developing and implementing multinational conservation efforts. In this contribution, we describe some top policy issues in Europe that need to be informed by high-quality conservation science. These include evaluation of the effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network of protected sites, implications of rapid economic and subsequent land- use change i...
Identification of water characteristic similarities in NE Mediterranean Uysal, Zahit; Tuğrul, Süleyman; Kılıç, Ece (null; 2017-10-13) Eastern Mediterranean is known as the most nutrient impoverished basins among the world seas. However, river inputs, atmospheric loads, winter convectional mixing, summer upwelling and the degree of exchange of coastal waters with offshore ones, all, contribute in spatial and temporal heterogeneity in receiving surface waters in the northeastern part of the eastern Mediterranean. This study is conducted to understand similarities in surface waters (inshore (low salinity-high nutrient), transition and offsho...

Citation Formats

T. Günther et al., “Population genomics of Mesolithic Scandinavia: Investigating early postglacial migration routes and high-latitude adaptation,” PLOS Biology, 2018, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/51931.