Ancient genomes from North Africa evidence prehistoric migrations to the Maghreb from both the Levant and Europe

Fregel, Rosa; Mendez, Fernando L.; Bokbot, Youssef; Socas, Dimas Martín; Camalich-Massieu, M. D.; Santana, J.J.; Morales, Jacob; Ávila‐Arcos, María C.; Underhill, Peter A.; Shapiro, Beth; Wojcik, Genevieve L.; Rasmussen, Morten; Soares, André Elias Rodrigues; Kapp, Joshua D.; Sockell, Alexandra; Santos, Francisco Javier Rodríguez; Mikdad, Abdeslam; Trujillo-Mederos, Aioze; Bustamante, Carlos D.

doi:10.1101/191569

Cited by 36 publications

(57 citation statements)

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“…Our mtDNA results on the indigenous people of the Canary Islands shed light on the prehistory of North Africa. Our data are in agreement with recent aDNA data from Morocco [73] and further evidence of a complex pattern of Mediterranean migrations in North Africa. Archaeological records in the Maghreb support this result, and also suggest further European intrusions during the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age eras [83,84].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…We identify several indigenous samples within macrohaplogroup L, belonging to L1b1a and the newly defined L3b1a12. Although Later Stone Age [82], and Early and Late Neolithic [73] samples from North Africa did not show any mtDNA lineage of sub-Saharan origin, our results imply the presence of L1b and L3b1a in North Africa at the time of the colonization of the Canary Islands. Regarding L3b1a12 (Figure S11), this lineage can also be considered autochthonous of the Canary Islands, with a coalescence age posterior to the proposed colonization date (Figure S5).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 57%

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Mitogenomes illuminate the origin and migration patterns of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands

Fregel

Ordóñez

Cabrera

et al. 2018

Preprint

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The Canary Islands’ indigenous people have been the subject of substantial archaeological, anthropological, linguistic and genetic research pointing to a most probable North African Berber source. However, neither agreement about the exact point of origin nor a model for the indigenous colonization of the islands has been established. To shed light on these questions, we analyzed 48 ancient mitogenomes from 25 archaeological sites from the seven main islands. Most lineages observed in the ancient samples have a Mediterranean distribution, and belong to lineages associated with the Neolithic expansion in the Near East and Europe (T2c, J2a, X3a…). This phylogeographic analysis of Canarian indigenous mitogenomes, the first of its kind, shows that some lineages are restricted to Central North Africa (H1cf, J2a2d and T2c1d3), while others have a wider distribution, including both West and Central North Africa, and, in some cases, Europe and the Near East (U6a1a1, U6a7a1, U6b, X3a, U6c1). In addition, we identify four new Canarian-specific lineages (H1e1a9, H4a1e, J2a2d1a and L3b1a12) whose coalescence dates correlate with the estimated time for the colonization of the islands (1st millennia CE). Additionally, we observe an asymmetrical distribution of mtDNA haplogroups in the ancient population, with certain haplogroups appearing more frequently in the islands closer to the continent. This reinforces results based on modern mtDNA and Y-chromosome data, and archaeological evidence suggesting the existence of two distinct migrations. Comparisons between insular populations show that some populations had high genetic diversity, while others were probably affected by genetic drift and/or bottlenecks. In spite of observing interinsular differences in the survival of indigenous lineages, modern populations, with the sole exception of La Gomera, are homogenous across the islands, supporting the theory of extensive human mobility after the European conquest.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 57%

Mitogenomes illuminate the origin and migration patterns of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands

Fregel

Ordóñez

Cabrera

et al. 2018

Preprint

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“…We first estimated F ST , a measure of population genetic differentiation, to assess the genetic relationships between ancient West Eurasian populations (Extended Data Table 1; Methods). Post-glacial Near Easterners and North Africans (PGNE) (CHG, Natufians, Taforalt 11 Ibero-Maurusians from North Africa, and early Neolithic farmers from Anatolia 8 , Iran 6 , the Levant 6 , and the Maghreb 17 ) are strongly differentiated from all European and Siberian hunter-gatherers (ESHG) ( F ST = 0.078-0.267). By contrast, Dzudzuana is genetically closer to both contemporaneous Gravettians from Europe (0.051±0.012) and also to the much later Neolithic Anatolian farmers (0.039±0.005) who are genetically closest to them according to this measure.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleolithic DNA from the Caucasus reveals core of West Eurasian ancestry

Lazaridis

Belfer‐Cohen²,

Mallick³

et al. 2018

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from around the beginning of the LGM. Surprisingly, the Dzudzuana population was 33 more closely related to early agriculturalists from western Anatolia ~8 thousand years 34 ago 8 than to the hunter-gatherers of the Caucasus from the same region of western 35 Georgia of ~13-10 thousand years ago 5 . Most of the Dzudzuana population's ancestry 36 was deeply related to the post-glacial western European hunter-gatherers of the 37'Villabruna cluster' 3 , but it also had ancestry from a lineage that had separated from 38 the great majority of non-African populations before they separated from each other, 39 proving that such 'Basal Eurasians' 6,9 were present in West Eurasia twice as early as 40 previously recorded 5,6 . We document major population turnover in the Near East after 41 the time of Dzudzuana, showing that the highly differentiated Holocene populations of 42 the region 6 were formed by 'Ancient North Eurasian' 3,9,10 admixture into the Caucasus 43 and Iran and North African 11,12 admixture into the Natufians of the Levant. We finally 44 show that the Dzudzuana population contributed the majority of the ancestry of post-45 Ice Age people in the Near East, North Africa, and even parts of Europe, thereby 46 becoming the largest single contributor of ancestry of all present-day West Eurasians. 47 Ancient DNA has revealed more about the deep history of Europe than of any other 48 continent, with dozens of Paleolithic samples reported to date 1-5 (Fig. 1a). Genetic analyses 49 show that the first populations related to present-day West Eurasians arrived in Europe at 50 least ~36 thousand years ago (kya) 2 . A new group of populations (Věstonice cluster), 51 associated with the archaeologically defined Gravettian entity, appeared in the genetic record 52 of Europe by ~30kya, while another group, associated with the archaeologically defined 53 Magdalenian culture, appeared in Europe by ~20kya (El Mirón cluster) 3 . By ~14kya a third 54 group, the Villabruna cluster, appeared throughout mainland Europe, coinciding with the 55 Bølling-Allerød warming period 3 . Members of this cluster, which has also been called 56 western European hunter-gatherers (WHG), were found across Europe during Late Upper 57 Paleolithic-to-Mesolithic times, and were the main pre-agricultural Europeans prior to the 58 Neolithic ~8kya 9 . 59 In contrast to this detailed knowledge about Europe during the Paleolithic, no Ice Age DNA 60 has been published from the Near East (including the Caucasus) whose post-glacial and 61Holocene-era populations <15kya were highly differentiated from both those of Europe and 62 also from each other 5,6,8,13,14 . To address this deficit, we analyzed teeth from two individuals 63 recovered from Dzudzuana Cave 15 , Southern Caucasus, ( Fig. 1a; Supplementary Information 64 section 1) from an archaeological layer previously dated to ~27-24kya and whose age 65 determination was confirmed by a series of 8 new dates (Extended Data Figure 1; 66 Supplementary Information section 1), thus allowing us to probe a pop...

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“…This area is inhabited by nomadic pastoralists and sedentary farmers. Paleogenomic and population genetic studies on ancient DNA and contemporary populations have started to reveal new insights into population continuity and incoming gene flow in this region of Africa …”

Section: New Insights To Study Past and Recent History In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%