RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Eight thousand years of natural selection in Europe JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 016477 DO 10.1101/016477 A1 Iain Mathieson A1 Iosif Lazaridis A1 Nadin Rohland A1 Swapan Mallick A1 Nick Patterson A1 Songül Alpaslan Roodenberg A1 Eadaoin Harney A1 Kristin Stewardson A1 Daniel Fernandes A1 Mario Novak A1 Kendra Sirak A1 Cristina Gamba A1 Eppie R. Jones A1 Bastien Llamas A1 Stanislav Dryomov A1 Joseph Pickrell A1 Juan Luís Arsuaga A1 José María Bermúdez de Castro A1 Eudald Carbonell A1 Fokke Gerritsen A1 Aleksandr Khokhlov A1 Pavel Kuznetsov A1 Marina Lozano A1 Harald Meller A1 Oleg Mochalov A1 Vayacheslav Moiseyev A1 Manuel A. Rojo Guerra A1 Jacob Roodenberg A1 Josep Maria Vergès A1 Johannes Krause A1 Alan Cooper A1 Kurt W. Alt A1 Dorcas Brown A1 David Anthony A1 Carles Lalueza-Fox A1 Wolfgang Haak A1 Ron Pinhasi A1 David Reich YR 2015 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/10/10/016477.abstract AB The arrival of farming in Europe around 8,500 years ago necessitated adaptation to new environments, pathogens, diets, and social organizations. While indirect evidence of adaptation can be detected in patterns of genetic variation in present-day people, ancient DNA makes it possible to witness selection directly by analyzing samples from populations before, during and after adaptation events. Here we report the first genome-wide scan for selection using ancient DNA, capitalizing on the largest genome-wide dataset yet assembled: 230 West Eurasians dating to between 6500 and 1000 BCE, including 163 with newly reported data. The new samples include the first genome-wide data from the Anatolian Neolithic culture, who we show were members of the population that was the source of Europe’s first farmers, and whose genetic material we extracted by focusing on the DNA-rich petrous bone. We identify genome-wide significant signatures of selection at loci associated with diet, pigmentation and immunity, and two independent episodes of selection on height.