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González-Fortes G, Tassi F, Trucchi E, Henneberger K, Paijmans JLA, Díez-Del-Molino D, Schroeder H, Susca RR, Barroso-Ruíz C, Bermudez FJ, Barroso-Medina C, Bettencourt AMS, Sampaio HA, Grandal-d'Anglade A, Salas A, de Lombera-Hermida A, Fabregas Valcarce R, Vaquero M, Alonso S, Lozano M, Rodríguez-Alvarez XP, Fernández-Rodríguez C, Manica A, Hofreiter M, Barbujani G. A western route of prehistoric human migration from Africa into the Iberian Peninsula. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 286:20182288. [PMID: 30963949 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.2288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Being at the western fringe of Europe, Iberia had a peculiar prehistory and a complex pattern of Neolithization. A few studies, all based on modern populations, reported the presence of DNA of likely African origin in this region, generally concluding it was the result of recent gene flow, probably during the Islamic period. Here, we provide evidence of much older gene flow from Africa to Iberia by sequencing whole genomes from four human remains from northern Portugal and southern Spain dated around 4000 years BP (from the Middle Neolithic to the Bronze Age). We found one of them to carry an unequivocal sub-Saharan mitogenome of most probably West or West-Central African origin, to our knowledge never reported before in prehistoric remains outside Africa. Our analyses of ancient nuclear genomes show small but significant levels of sub-Saharan African affinity in several ancient Iberian samples, which indicates that what we detected was not an occasional individual phenomenon, but an admixture event recognizable at the population level. We interpret this result as evidence of an early migration process from Africa into the Iberian Peninsula through a western route, possibly across the Strait of Gibraltar.
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Affiliation(s)
- G González-Fortes
- 1 Department of Life Science and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara , 44121 Ferrara , Italy
| | - F Tassi
- 1 Department of Life Science and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara , 44121 Ferrara , Italy
| | - E Trucchi
- 1 Department of Life Science and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara , 44121 Ferrara , Italy
| | - K Henneberger
- 2 Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam , 14476 Potsdam OT Golm , Germany
| | - J L A Paijmans
- 2 Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam , 14476 Potsdam OT Golm , Germany
| | - D Díez-Del-Molino
- 3 Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Museum of Natural History , 104 05 Stockholm , Sweden
| | - H Schroeder
- 4 Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen , 1353 Copenhagen K , Denmark
| | - R R Susca
- 1 Department of Life Science and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara , 44121 Ferrara , Italy
| | - C Barroso-Ruíz
- 5 Fundación Instituto de Investigación de Prehistoria y Evolución Humana (FIPEH) , 14900 Lucena, Córdoba , Spain
| | - F J Bermudez
- 5 Fundación Instituto de Investigación de Prehistoria y Evolución Humana (FIPEH) , 14900 Lucena, Córdoba , Spain
| | - C Barroso-Medina
- 5 Fundación Instituto de Investigación de Prehistoria y Evolución Humana (FIPEH) , 14900 Lucena, Córdoba , Spain
| | - A M S Bettencourt
- 6 Landscape, Heritage and Territory Laboratory-Lab2PT, Department of History, University of Minho , 4700-057 Braga , Portugal
| | - H A Sampaio
- 7 Landscape, Heritage and Territory Laboratory-Lab2PT, Department of Hospitality and Tourism, Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave , Barcelos , Portugal
| | - A Grandal-d'Anglade
- 8 Universitary Institute of Geology, University of Coruña , A Coruña 15081 , Spain
| | - A Salas
- 9 Unidade de Xenética, Instituto de Ciencias Forenses, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, and GenPoB (IDIS-SERGAS) , Galicia , Spain
| | - A de Lombera-Hermida
- 10 Department of History GEPN-AAT, University of Santiago de Compostela , 15782 Santiago de Compostela , Spain
| | - R Fabregas Valcarce
- 10 Department of History GEPN-AAT, University of Santiago de Compostela , 15782 Santiago de Compostela , Spain
| | - M Vaquero
- 11 Department of History and History of Art, Rovira i Virgili University , 43002 Tarragona , Spain.,12 Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES) , 43007 Tarragona , Spain
| | - S Alonso
- 11 Department of History and History of Art, Rovira i Virgili University , 43002 Tarragona , Spain.,12 Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES) , 43007 Tarragona , Spain
| | - M Lozano
- 11 Department of History and History of Art, Rovira i Virgili University , 43002 Tarragona , Spain.,12 Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES) , 43007 Tarragona , Spain
| | - X P Rodríguez-Alvarez
- 11 Department of History and History of Art, Rovira i Virgili University , 43002 Tarragona , Spain.,12 Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES) , 43007 Tarragona , Spain
| | | | - A Manica
- 14 Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge , Cambridge CB2 3EJ , UK
| | - M Hofreiter
- 2 Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam , 14476 Potsdam OT Golm , Germany
| | - G Barbujani
- 1 Department of Life Science and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara , 44121 Ferrara , Italy
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