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Saag L, Staniuk R. Historical human migrations: From the steppe to the basin. Curr Biol 2022; 32:R738-R741. [PMID: 35820383 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.05.058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Many migrations during human history have made the Carpathian Basin the melting pot of Europe. New ancient genomes confirm the Asian origin of European Huns, Avars and Magyars and huge within-group variability that is linked with social structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lehti Saag
- Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
| | - Robert Staniuk
- Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, UK.
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2
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Maternal Lineages of Gepids from Transylvania. Genes (Basel) 2022; 13:genes13040563. [PMID: 35456371 PMCID: PMC9032604 DOI: 10.3390/genes13040563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2022] [Revised: 03/16/2022] [Accepted: 03/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
According to the written historical sources, the Gepids were a Germanic tribe that settled in the Carpathian Basin during the Migration Period. They were allies of the Huns, and an independent Gepid Kingdom arose after the collapse of the Hun Empire. In this period, the Carpathian Basin was characterized by so-called row-grave cemeteries. Due to the scarcity of historical and archaeological data, we have a poor knowledge of the origin and composition of these barbarian populations, and this is still a subject of debate. To better understand the genetic legacy of migration period societies, we obtained 46 full mitogenome sequences from three Gepid cemeteries located in Transylvania, Romania. The studied samples represent the Classical Gepidic period and illustrate the genetic make-up of this group from the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD, which is characterized by cultural markers associated with the Gepid culture in Transylvania. The genetic structure of the Gepid people is explored for the first time, providing new insights into the genetic makeup of this archaic group. The retrieved genetic data showed mainly the presence of Northwestern European mitochondrial ancient lineages in the Gepid group and all population genetic analyses reiterated the same genetic structure, showing that early ancient mitogenomes from Europe were the major contributors to the Gepid maternal genetic pool.
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Diroma MA, Modi A, Lari M, Sineo L, Caramelli D, Vai S. New Insights Into Mitochondrial DNA Reconstruction and Variant Detection in Ancient Samples. Front Genet 2021; 12:619950. [PMID: 33679884 PMCID: PMC7930628 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2021.619950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 01/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Ancient DNA (aDNA) studies are frequently focused on the analysis of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is much more abundant than the nuclear genome, hence can be better retrieved from ancient remains. However, postmortem DNA damage and contamination make the data analysis difficult because of DNA fragmentation and nucleotide alterations. In this regard, the assessment of the heteroplasmic fraction in ancient mtDNA has always been considered an unachievable goal due to the complexity in distinguishing true endogenous variants from artifacts. We implemented and applied a computational pipeline for mtDNA analysis to a dataset of 30 ancient human samples from an Iron Age necropolis in Polizzello (Sicily, Italy). The pipeline includes several modules from well-established tools for aDNA analysis and a recently released variant caller, which was specifically conceived for mtDNA, applied for the first time to aDNA data. Through a fine-tuned filtering on variant allele sequencing features, we were able to accurately reconstruct nearly complete (>88%) mtDNA genome for almost all the analyzed samples (27 out of 30), depending on the degree of preservation and the sequencing throughput, and to get a reliable set of variants allowing haplogroup prediction. Additionally, we provide guidelines to deal with possible artifact sources, including nuclear mitochondrial sequence (NumtS) contamination, an often-neglected issue in ancient mtDNA surveys. Potential heteroplasmy levels were also estimated, although most variants were likely homoplasmic, and validated by data simulations, proving that new sequencing technologies and software are sensitive enough to detect partially mutated sites in ancient genomes and discriminate true variants from artifacts. A thorough functional annotation of detected and filtered mtDNA variants was also performed for a comprehensive evaluation of these ancient samples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Angela Diroma
- Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy
| | - Alessandra Modi
- Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy
| | - Martina Lari
- Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy
| | - Luca Sineo
- Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche, Chimiche e Farmaceutiche, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
| | - David Caramelli
- Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy
| | - Stefania Vai
- Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy
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Genetic evidence suggests a sense of family, parity and conquest in the Xiongnu Iron Age nomads of Mongolia. Hum Genet 2020; 140:349-359. [PMID: 32734383 DOI: 10.1007/s00439-020-02209-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2020] [Accepted: 07/22/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
In an effort to characterize the people who composed the groups known as the Xiongnu, nuclear and whole mitochondrial DNA data were generated from the skeletal remains of 52 individuals excavated from the Tamir Ulaan Khoshuu (TUK) cemetery in Central Mongolia. This burial site, attributed to the Xiongnu period, was used from the first century BC to the first century AD. Kinship analyses were conducted using autosomal and Y-chromosomal DNA markers along with complete sequences of the mitochondrial genome. These analyses suggested close kin relationships between many individuals. Nineteen such individuals composed a large family spanning five generations. Within this family, we determined that a woman was of especially high status; this is a novel insight into the structure and hierarchy of societies from the Xiongnu period. Moreover, our findings confirmed that the Xiongnu had a strongly admixed mitochondrial and Y-chromosome gene pools and revealed a significant western component in the Xiongnu group studied. Using a fine-scale approach (haplotype instead of haplogroup-level information), we propose Scytho-Siberians as ancestors of the Xiongnu and Huns as their descendants.
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Modi A, Lancioni H, Cardinali I, Capodiferro MR, Rambaldi Migliore N, Hussein A, Strobl C, Bodner M, Schnaller L, Xavier C, Rizzi E, Bonomi Ponzi L, Vai S, Raveane A, Cavadas B, Semino O, Torroni A, Olivieri A, Lari M, Pereira L, Parson W, Caramelli D, Achilli A. The mitogenome portrait of Umbria in Central Italy as depicted by contemporary inhabitants and pre-Roman remains. Sci Rep 2020; 10:10700. [PMID: 32612271 PMCID: PMC7329865 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-67445-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2020] [Accepted: 05/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Umbria is located in Central Italy and took the name from its ancient inhabitants, the Umbri, whose origins are still debated. Here, we investigated the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation of 545 present-day Umbrians (with 198 entire mitogenomes) and 28 pre-Roman individuals (obtaining 19 ancient mtDNAs) excavated from the necropolis of Plestia. We found a rather homogeneous distribution of western Eurasian lineages across the region, with few notable exceptions. Contemporary inhabitants of the eastern part, delimited by the Tiber River and the Apennine Mountains, manifest a peculiar mitochondrial proximity to central-eastern Europeans, mainly due to haplogroups U4 and U5a, and an overrepresentation of J (30%) similar to the pre-Roman remains, also excavated in East Umbria. Local genetic continuities are further attested to by six terminal branches (H1e1, J1c3, J2b1, U2e2a, U8b1b1 and K1a4a) shared between ancient and modern mitogenomes. Eventually, we identified multiple inputs from various population sources that likely shaped the mitochondrial gene pool of ancient Umbri over time, since early Neolithic, including gene flows with central-eastern Europe. This diachronic mtDNA portrait of Umbria fits well with the genome-wide population structure identified on the entire peninsula and with historical sources that list the Umbri among the most ancient Italic populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandra Modi
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, 50122, Florence, Italy
| | - Hovirag Lancioni
- Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, 06123, Perugia, Italy.
| | - Irene Cardinali
- Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, 06123, Perugia, Italy
| | - Marco R Capodiferro
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology "L. Spallanzani", University of Pavia, 27100, Pavia, Italy
| | - Nicola Rambaldi Migliore
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology "L. Spallanzani", University of Pavia, 27100, Pavia, Italy
| | - Abir Hussein
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology "L. Spallanzani", University of Pavia, 27100, Pavia, Italy
| | - Christina Strobl
- Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Martin Bodner
- Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Lisa Schnaller
- Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Catarina Xavier
- Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Ermanno Rizzi
- Istituto di Tecnologie Biomediche, CNR, Segrate, 20090, Milan, Italy
| | | | - Stefania Vai
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, 50122, Florence, Italy
| | - Alessandro Raveane
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology "L. Spallanzani", University of Pavia, 27100, Pavia, Italy
| | - Bruno Cavadas
- IPATIMUP (Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto), Porto, Portugal.,i3S (Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto), 4200-135, Porto, Portugal
| | - Ornella Semino
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology "L. Spallanzani", University of Pavia, 27100, Pavia, Italy
| | - Antonio Torroni
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology "L. Spallanzani", University of Pavia, 27100, Pavia, Italy
| | - Anna Olivieri
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology "L. Spallanzani", University of Pavia, 27100, Pavia, Italy
| | - Martina Lari
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, 50122, Florence, Italy
| | - Luisa Pereira
- IPATIMUP (Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto), Porto, Portugal.,i3S (Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto), 4200-135, Porto, Portugal
| | - Walther Parson
- Institute of Legal Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria.,Forensic Science Program, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16801, USA
| | - David Caramelli
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, 50122, Florence, Italy
| | - Alessandro Achilli
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology "L. Spallanzani", University of Pavia, 27100, Pavia, Italy.
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Poma A, Cesare P, Bonfigli A, Vecchiotti G, Colafarina S, Savini F, Redi F, Zarivi O. Analysis of ancient mtDNA from the medieval archeological site of Amiternum (L'Aquila), central Italy. Heliyon 2019; 5:e02586. [PMID: 31646208 PMCID: PMC6804371 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2019] [Revised: 09/11/2019] [Accepted: 10/01/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Study of ancient DNA makes it possible to analyze genetic relationships between individuals and populations of past and present. In this paper we have analyzed remains of human bones, dating back to the 8th-10th century AD, from the burials found in the Cathedral of Santa Maria in Civitate, archaeological site of Amiternum, L'Aquila, Italy. As a genetic marker, the hypervariable region 1 of mitochondrial DNA (HVR1) was selected. To obtain reliable sequences from the hypervariable region 1 of mtDNA (HVR1) were performed: multiple extractions, template quantification and cloning of PCR products. The sequences obtained were compared with Anderson's sequence for the identification of polymorphisms (SNP) and haplogroups. The data obtained were analyzed with various software and phylogenetic methods. For the comparison between populations, ancient and modern sequences found in databases and literature have been used. This work provides preliminary information on the correlation between the population of Amiternum, the migrant populations transited and/or established in the territory of Amiternum such as Byzantines, Longobards (Lombards), which dominated the Italian peninsula between 568 and 774 AD, and the current populations of Italy. The study of haplogroups, the analysis of genetic variability and phylogenesis studies on the sequences considered show a genetic closeness between the individuals of Amiternum, the current population of central-northern Italy and the Germanic tribe of Longobards, however, also highlights genetic traits of Byzantines in some samples of Amiternum. Using the analysis of amelogenin gene fragments, we successfully determined the sex of the bone remains on all samples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Poma
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy
- Corresponding author.
| | - Patrizia Cesare
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy
| | - Antonella Bonfigli
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy
| | - Giulia Vecchiotti
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy
| | - Sabrina Colafarina
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy
| | - Francesca Savini
- Department of Human Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy
| | - Fabio Redi
- Department of Human Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy
| | - Osvaldo Zarivi
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy
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