PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Torsten Günther
AU  - Helena Malmström
AU  - Emma M. Svensson
AU  - Ayça Omrak
AU  - Federico Sánchez-Quinto
AU  - Gülşah M. Kılınç
AU  - Maja Krzewińska
AU  - Gunilla Eriksson
AU  - Magdalena Fraser
AU  - Hanna Edlund
AU  - Arielle R. Munters
AU  - Alexandra Coutinho
AU  - Luciana G. Simões
AU  - Mário Vicente
AU  - Anders Sjölander
AU  - Berit Jansen Sellevold
AU  - Roger Jørgensen
AU  - Peter Claes
AU  - Mark D. Shriver
AU  - Cristina Valdiosera
AU  - Mihai G. Netea
AU  - Jan Apel
AU  - Kerstin Lidén
AU  - Birgitte Skar
AU  - Jan Storå
AU  - Anders Götherström
AU  - Mattias Jakobsson
TI  - Genomics of Mesolithic Scandinavia reveal colonization routes and high-latitude adaptation
AID  - 10.1101/164400
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 164400
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/30/164400.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/30/164400.full
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.