RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Genomics of Mesolithic Scandinavia reveal colonization routes and high-latitude adaptation
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 164400
DO 10.1101/164400
A1 Torsten Günther
A1 Helena Malmström
A1 Emma M. Svensson
A1 Ayça Omrak
A1 Federico Sánchez-Quinto
A1 Gülşah M. Kılınç
A1 Maja Krzewińska
A1 Gunilla Eriksson
A1 Magdalena Fraser
A1 Hanna Edlund
A1 Arielle R. Munters
A1 Alexandra Coutinho
A1 Luciana G. Simões
A1 Mário Vicente
A1 Anders Sjölander
A1 Berit Jansen Sellevold
A1 Roger Jørgensen
A1 Peter Claes
A1 Mark D. Shriver
A1 Cristina Valdiosera
A1 Mihai G. Netea
A1 Jan Apel
A1 Kerstin Lidén
A1 Birgitte Skar
A1 Jan Storå
A1 Anders Götherström
A1 Mattias Jakobsson
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/17/164400.abstract
AB Scandinavia was one of the last geographic areas in Europe to become habitable for humans after the last glaciation. However, the origin(s) of the first colonizers and their migration routes remain unclear. We sequenced the genomes, up to 57x coverage, of seven hunter-gatherers excavated across Scandinavia and dated to 9,500-6,000 years before present. 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. This result suggests that Scandinavia was initially colonized following two different routes: one from the south, the other 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 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. Finally, we were able to compute a 3D facial reconstruction of a Mesolithic woman from her high-coverage genome, giving a glimpse into an individual’s physical appearance in the Mesolithic.