First Bronze Age Human Mitogenomes from Calabria (Grotta Della Monaca, Southern Italy)

Abstract

The Italian peninsula was host to a strong history of migration processes that shaped its genomic variability since prehistoric times. During the Metal Age, Sicily and Southern Italy were the protagonists of intense trade networks and settlements along the Mediterranean. Nonetheless, ancient DNA studies in Southern Italy are, at present, still limited to prehistoric and Roman Apulia. Here, we present the first mitogenomes from a Middle Bronze Age cave burial in Calabria to address this knowledge gap. We adopted a hybridization capture approach, which enabled the recovery of one complete and one partial mitochondrial genome. Phylogenetic analysis assigned these two individuals to the H1e and H5 subhaplogroups, respectively. This preliminary phylogenetic analysis supports affinities with coeval Sicilian populations, along with Linearbandkeramik and Bell Beaker cultures maternal lineages from Central Europe and Iberia. Our work represents a starting point which contributes to the comprehension of migrations and population dynamics in Southern Italy, and highlights this knowledge gap yet to be filled by genomic studies.

Ancient DNA re-opens the question of the phylogenetic position of the Sardinian pika Prolagus sardus (Wagner, 1829), an extinct lagomorph

“…The authenticity of the sequence data was evidenced by clean negative controls and DNA-damage patterns, which cast no doubts about the ancient origin of the retrieved sequence information. The low fraction of aDNA assigned to P. sardus that was possible to recover from this specimen could, however, confirm the general difficulties in retrieving well preserved DNA from ancient remains of the hot Mediterranean basin, if compared to other colder environments, such as permafrost 12 , 52 , 53 . In these conditions, therefore, many more copies of the mitochondrial genome than those of the nuclear genome might be usually retrieved from ancient bones.…”

Bioarchaeological and paleogenomic profiling of the unusual Neolithic burial from Grotta di Pietra Sant’Angelo (Calabria, Italy)

“…Finally, a complete mitochondrial genome and the first whole genome data from prehistoric Calabria have been produced through shotgun sequencing. In fact, while ancient DNA approaches have been applied to investigate the Neolithic transition in Northern 17 – 19 , Central 20 , and insular Italy 21 – 23 , few ancient DNA data have been produced yet for prehistoric SI 24 – 26 and very little is known about the paleogenomic landscape of Calabria 27 . Thus, genomic data obtained here were investigated in the context of modern and ancient variability of Mediterranean populations.…”

Ancient and Archaic Genomes

“…In the context of the study of past human population dynamics, Fontani and colleagues [ 4 ] present the first ancient molecular data from the Calabria region (southwestern Italy): an important contribution to fill the gap in the limited knowledge of prehistoric genetic variability in the Italian Peninsula. Two mitochondrial genomes were obtained from a Middle Bronze Age mass grave in a karstic cave called Grotta della Monaca.…”

“…In the context of the study of past human population dynamics, Fontani and colleagues [4] present the first ancient molecular data from the Calabria region (southwestern Italy):…”