A mosaic genetic structure of the human population living in the South Baltic region during the Iron Age

Abstract

Despite the increase in our knowledge about the factors that shaped the genetic structure of the human population in Europe, the demographic processes that occurred during and after the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in Central-East Europe remain unclear. To fill the gap, we isolated and sequenced DNAs of 60 individuals from Kowalewko, a bi-ritual cemetery of the Iron Age (IA) Wielbark culture, located between the Oder and Vistula rivers (Kow-OVIA population). The collected data revealed high genetic diversity of Kow-OVIA, suggesting that it was not a small isolated population. Analyses of mtDNA haplogroup frequencies and genetic distances performed for Kow-OVIA and other ancient European populations showed that Kow-OVIA was most closely linked to the Jutland Iron Age (JIA) population. However, the relationship of both populations to the preceding Late Neolithic (LN) and EBA populations were different. We found that this phenomenon is most likely the consequence of the distinct genetic history observed for Kow-OVIA women and men. Females were related to the Early-Middle Neolithic farmers, whereas males were related to JIA and LN Bell Beakers. In general, our findings disclose the mechanisms that could underlie the formation of the local genetic substructures in the South Baltic region during the IA.

Goth migration induced changes in the matrilineal genetic structure of the central-east European population

“…The results of the above analyses were consistent with our previous observations 8 suggesting that the contribution of the particular populations to the genetic structure of present-day Europe is not fully consistent with the chronology according to which these populations inhabited Central Europe. For example, the Mas-VBIA, Kow-OVIA, JIA, BBC and CWC contributed more significantly to the genetic structure of present-day Europe than the UC.…”

“…Biological material was collected from a biritual cemetery located in central Wielkopolska (also referred to as Greater Poland - contemporary western Poland) in Kowalewko. Former archeological and anthropological studies showed that approximately 500 people were buried there between 1 and 200 A.D. Our recently published report revealed a high genetic diversity of the Kow-OVIA 8 . Interestingly, women and men from Kowalewko had a significantly different genetic history.…”

“…To extend our knowledge on the issues described above, we initiated broad genetic studies of the populations inhabiting the territory of present-day Poland in the IA. In our earlier paper, we characterized the maternal genetic makeup of the individuals living in the west part of contemporary Poland 8 . In this report, we focused on the maternal genetic history of the Mas-VBIA group that lived in the eastern part of contemporary Poland (the region located between the Vistula and Bug Rivers) during the 2 nd to 4 th century A.D. We found that the intrapopulation diversity of the Mas-VBIA (π = 0.016263) was beyond expectations.…”

“…To learn more about these processes, we have commenced systematic studies of the populations inhabiting the territory corresponding to present-day Poland in the first centuries AD. Our initial analyses were focused on a large group of individuals living in the region between Oder and Vistula Rivers in the IA (group called the Kow-OVIA) 8,21 . Biological material was collected from a biritual cemetery located in central Wielkopolska (also referred to as Greater Poland - contemporary western Poland) in Kowalewko.…”

Understanding population structure in an evolutionary context: population-specificFSTand pairwiseFST

“…Pairwise differences are tested, similar to one-way ANOVA, when a significant difference in the means is detected. This procedure has been widely adopted to study species ranging from plants to animals (Weir and Hill 2002) and, more recently, the approach has been used in population genomics analyses of various species such as small freshwater fish (Malinsky 2015), herring (Lamichhaney et al 2017), tobacco cutworm (Cheng et al 2017), drosophila (Griffin et al 2017) and humans (Bhatia et al 2013; Lazaridis et al 2016; Anopheles gambiae 1000 Genomes Consortium 2017; Stolarek et al 2018). Bhatia et al (2013) proposed the bias-corrected F ST estimator of Hudson (1992) for comparing two populations at a series of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).…”