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EspañolGENETIC HISTORY OF EUROPE
This article describes demographic and genetic flows into and around Europen populations, as a product of human migrations.
Relation to other populations
| Africa | Oceania | East Asia | Europe | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oceania | 24.7 | |||
| East Asia | 20.6 | 10 | ||
| Europe | 16.6 | 13.5 | 9.7 | |
| America | 22.6 | 14.6 | 8.9 | 9.5 |
A study by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza of the Stanford University, School of Medicine, using 120 blood polymorphisms provides information on genetic relatedness of the various continental populations[1]. Genetic distance is a measure used to quantify the genetic differences between two populations. It is based on the principle that two populations that share similar frequencies of a trait are more closely related than populations that have more divergent frequencies of a trait. In its simplest form it is the difference in frequencies of a particular trait between two populations. For example the frequency of RH negative individuals is 50.4% among Basques, 41.2% in France and 41.1% in England. Thus the genetic difference between the Basques and French is 9.2% and the genetic difference between the French and the English is 0.1% for the RH negative trait. Averaged over several traits this can give the overall genetic relatedness of various populations[2].
According to the study all non-African populations are more closely related to each other than to Africans consistent with the hypothesis that all non-Africans are descended from a single African population. Europeans are most closely related to East Asians and least related to Africans. However of all the non-African populations, Europeans are most closely related to Africans. As the genetic distance from Africa to Europe (16.6) is shorter than the genetic distance from Africa to East Asia (20.6) and even much shorter than the Genetic distance from Africa to Australia, Cavalli-Sforza proposes that both Asian and African populations contributed to the settlement of Europe which began 40 000 years ago. The overall contributions from Asia and Africa were estimated to be around two-thirds and one-third, respectively. Europe has a genetic variation in general about three times less than that of other continents.[3]
European Population Substructure
European population substructure, using Single nucleotide polymorphisms from a 2006 autosomal study
An autosomal DNA plot of genetic distances derived from 120 allele frequencies in Cavalli-Sforza's ''The History and Geography of Human Genes''.
In 2006, an autosomal analysis comparing samples from various European populations concluded that "there is a consistent and reproducible distinction between “northern” and “southern” European population groups". Most individual participants with southern European ancestry (Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and Spanish) have >85% membership in the “southern” population; and most northern, western, eastern, and central Europeans have >90% in the “northern” population group. Ashkenazi Jewish as well as Sephardic Jewish origin also showed >85% membership in the “southern” population, consistent with a later Mediterranean origin of these ethnic groups." Based on this work, we have developed a core set of informative SNP markers that can control for this partition in European population structure in a variety of clinical and genetic studies."[2]
Somewhat contradicting these findings, a similar 2007 study found that the most important genetic differentiation in Europe occurs on a line from the north to the south-east (northern Europe to the Balkans), with another east-west axis of differentiation across Europe. Its findings were also consistent with earlier mtDNA and Y-chromosonal based results supporting the theory that modern Iberians hold the most ancient European genetic ancestry, as well as separating Basques and Sami from other European populations. It confirmed that the English and Irish cluster with other Northern Europeans such as Germans and Poles while some Basque and Italian individuals also clustered with Northern Europeans. Despite these stratifications it noted the unusually high degree of European homogeneity: ''"there is low apparent diversity in Europe with the entire continent-wide samples only marginally more dispersed than single population samples elsewhere in the world."''[4]
Haplogroups
Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups
The distribution of haplogroup E3b1 according to Semino et al. 2004
Distribution of R1a (purple) and R1b (red). Two of the three most common Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups in Europe. Black represents all the other haplogroups.
There are three major Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups which largely account for most of Europe's present-day population[5][6].
★ Haplogroup R1b is common on the western Atlantic coast of Europe, from the Iberian Peninsula (comprising Spain and Portugal) to Scotland.
★ Haplogroup I is common across Central Europe and up into Scandinavia.
★ Haplogroup R1a is common in Eastern Europe (and has also spread across into Central Asia and as far as the Indian subcontinent).
Most common of all haplogroups among western Europeans is R1b.[7][8] The exact following values of Hg R1b are: Basques: 88.1%; Irish: 81.5%; Welsh: 89.0%; Scots: 77.1%; Non-Basque Spaniards: 68.0 (Catalans: 79.2; Andalusians: 65.5); Portuguese(South): 56.0%; Portuguese (North): 62.0%; British: 68.8; English (Central): 61.9% Belgians: 63.0; French: 52.2; Danes: 41.7%, Norwegian: 25.9; Swedish: 20.0; German: 47.9; Italian (Calabria): 32.4; Italian (Sardinia): 22.1%; Italian (North-central): 62.0. In conclusion, the so-called R1b genetic family is the most numerous in Western Europe.[9] Each haplogroup also have subclades.[10] R1a and R1b are subclades of Haplogroup R (Y-DNA)[11] Two main subgroups of Haplogroup I (Y-DNA) are I-M253/I-M307/I-P30/I-P40 which ''has highest frequency in Scandinavia, Iceland, and northwest Europe.'' The other is I-S31 which ''includes I-P37.2, which is the most common form in the Balkans and Sardinia, and I-S23/I-S30/I-S32/I-S33, which reaches its highest frequency along the northwest coast of continental Europe.''[12]
There is an ongoing debate regarding Neolithic Europe, with evidence both for and against a demic diffusion from the Near East: ''genetic studies have failed to settle the controversy so far, because they have been interpreted in different ways... A rather heated debate followed, and is still continuing.''[13][14]
Also, , around 4,500 years ago, Haplogroup N3 began moving across from west of the Ural mountains, and seems to follow closely the spread of the Finno-Ugric languages.
Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroups
About mitochondrial DNA haplogroups (mtDNA), according to University of Oulu Library (Finland):
mtDNA Haplogroup N1a while presently rare (0.18%-0.3%) occurred in as many as 25% of Neolithic Europeans and has subsequently been absorbed into the current populations [15][16].
Paleolithic
The prehistory of the European peoples can be traced by the examination of archaeological sites, linguistic studies, and by the examination of the DNA of the people who live in Europe now, or from recovered ancient DNA. Much of this research is ongoing, with discoveries still being continually made, and theories rise and fall.
Europe 20,000 years ago, showing coastline, extent of Ice caps and regions where refugia are thought to have been situated.[17]
Modern humans (Cro magnon) began to colonize Europe about 35,000 years ago, as evidenced by the spread of the Aurignacian culture. Modern humans may have arrived along two major routes either side of the Black Sea. Very quickly - by about 25,000 years ago - the prior inhabitants (our cousin species ''H. neanderthalensis'') were either killed off or absorbed into the population and ultimately became extinct.[18] About 22,000 years ago the last Ice Age (often referred to as the Last Glacial Maximum or LGM) began, rendering much of Europe uninhabitable. Humans may only have occupied certain regions of Europe at this time, these are often called refuges (or refugia) and were located along the northern Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts, as well as in the Balkans. When the glaciers receded about 16,000 years ago, the populations that had occupied the refuges are thought to have begun to spread and colonise northern Europe.[19][20] The population of Europe were hunter-gatherers until the advent of agriculture about eight millennia ago, some academics theorise that farming was introduced by people who migrated (Demic diffusion) from the Near East, and that these farmers introduced Indo-European languages to Europe. Anatolian hypothesis proponents have emphasized that "demic diffusion" is not necessary to explain most of the spread of Indo-European languages in Europe or elsewhere.[21]
Neolithic migration
The largest admixture to the European paleolithic stock is due to the neolithic revolution of the 7th to 5th millennia BC.[22]
Bronze Age migrations
Theories about the origins of the Indo-European language center around a hypothetical Proto-Indo-European people, who are traced, in the Kurgan hypothesis, to somewhere north of the Black Sea at about 4500 BCE,They domesticated the horse, and spread their culture and genes across Europe. It has been difficult to identify what these "Kurgan" genes might be. Another approach -- the Anatolian hypthesis suggests origin in Anatolia
To what extent Indo-European migrations replaced the indigenous Mesolithic peoples is debated, but a consensus has been reached that technology and language transfer played a more important role in this process than actual gene-flow.[23]
Uralic influence
According to a study conducted by four scientists, including Cavalli-Sforza LL:
North and Northeast African influences
There are a number of genetic markers which are characteristic of Horn African and North African populations which are to be found in European populations signifying ancient and modern population movements across the Mediterranean. These markers are to be found particularly in Mediterranean Europe but some are also prevalent, at low levels, throughout the continent. The spread of the Megaliths and its Cultures seem to have been carried, or kept maritime connections with, the Mediterranean and Northern Africans.
Y-chromosome DNA
The general parent Y-chromosome Haplogroup E3b, originating in modern day Somalia, is by far the most common in North and Northeast Africa, and is also common throughout the majority of Europe, particularly in Mediterranean and South Eastern Europe, reaching its highest concentration in Greece and the Balkan region, but also with an important presence in other regions such as Hungary, Italy, Iberia and Austria. [16].25.
Outside of East Africa, E3b's two most prevalent clades are E-M78 (E3b1a) and E-M81 (E3b1b, formally E3b2 also known as "Berber marker").
A study from Semino shows that Y-chromosome haplotype E-M81 (E3b1b), is specific to North African populations and almost absent in Europe except the Iberia (Spain and Portugal) and Sicily[17]. Another study shows that E-M81 is found present, albeit at low levels throughout Southern Europe (ranging from 1.5% in Northern Italians, 2.2% in Central Italians, 1.6% in southern Spaniards, 3.5% in the French, 4% in the Northern Portuguese, 12.2% in the southern Portuguese and 41.2% in the genetic isolate of the Pasiegos from Cantabria)[24]. The findings of this latter study contradict a more thorough analysis Y-chromosome analysis of the Iberian peninsula according to which haplogroup E-M81 surpasses frequencies of 10% in Southern Spain[18]. The absence of microsatellite variation suggests a very recent arrival from North Africa consistent with historical exchanges across the Mediterranean during the period of Islamic expansion, namely of Berber populations.[25]. However a thorough study about Y-chromosome Lineages from Portugal revealed that ''The mtDNA and Y data indicate that the Berber presence in that region dates prior to the Moorish expansion in 711 AD [..] Our data indicate that male Berbers, unlike sub-Saharan immigrants, constituted a long-lasting and continuous community in the country[26].
Haplotype V(p49/TaqI), a characteristic North African haplotype, may be also found in the Iberian peninsula, and a decreasing North-South cline of frequency clearly establishes a gene flow from North Africa towards Iberia which is also consistent with Moorish presence in the peninsula.[19]. A updated version of this study that took into account new markers "North African Berber and Arab influences in the western Mediterranean" (Dieterlen et Florent. 2006) clearly stated that genetic exchanges have been significant, especially in the most southerly regions and not only in Iberia but also in Italy and south of France where this specific north-african haplotype surpasses frequencies of 10%.[20].
Haplogroup E-M78 (E3b1a) was further sub-divided by Fulvio Cruciani (α, β, γ, δ). This Sub-Saharan-originating Haplogroup is found at relatively high levels in the Balkans and some other Mediterraneans countries, which suggests, in addition to the more recent admixture, a very ancient sub-Saharan contribution to Southern Europe genepool. The fact that the most prevalent form of E-M78 (α) found in Southern Europe is a later, mainly local (Mediterranean) variation is irrelevant, since the parental E-M78 originated in eastern Africa, as did all of its ancestral markers.
Mitochondrial DNA
Genetic studies on Iberian populations also show that North African mitochondrial DNA sequences (haplogroup U6) and sub-Saharan sequences (Haplogroup L), present values which are a little higher than those generally observed in Europe, although very low levels of Haplotype U6 have also been detected in Sicily. It happens also to be a characteristic genetic marker of the Saami populations of Northern Scandinavia.[21] It is difficult to ascertain that U6's presence is the consequence of Islam's expansion in Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly because it is more frequent in the north of the Iberian Peninsula rather than in the south. In smaller numbers it is attested too in the British Islands, again in its northern and western borders. It may indicate the result of neolithic/megalithic expansion by coasts from North Africa,now residual. One subclade of U6 is particularly common among Canarian Spaniards as a result of native Guanche (proto-berber) ancestry.
On the other hand, the distribution of mtDNA Haplogroup L, is consistent with modern historical data, being more frequent in Iberia than in the rest of Europe and more frequent in the south of the peninsula than in the north. Islamic domination, as well as the slave trade, is likely to have been a factor leading to its presence in some modern-day Southern Iberian populations.
Sub-Saharan admixture
Main articles: Sub-Saharan DNA admixture in Europe
Finally, aside from E3b, sub-Saharan African DNA is scattered throughout the European continent. Not every population has been studied yet, but enough have so that a picture is starting to emerge. The amount of black admixture in Europe today ranges from a few percent in Iberia to almost nil around the Baltic.[27] It seems to show a decreasing cline from the southwest to the northeast, which corresponds with the areas most affected by the African slave trade.
According to a summary study by Pereira et al. 2005, sub-Saharan mtDNA L haplogroups were found at rates of 3.83% in Iberians (Portuguese and Spanish), 2.86% in Sardinians, 2.38% in Albanians, 1% in the British, 0.94% in Sicilians, 0.62% in a German-Danish sample.
Sub-Saharan African Y-chromosomes are much less common in Europe, for the reasons discussed above. However, Haplogroups E(xE3b) and Haplogroup A spread to Europe due to migrations from Northeast Africa, rather than the slave trade. Haplotype A has been detected in Portugal (3%), Spain (0.42%), Germany (2%), Austria (0.78%), France (2.5% in a very small sample), Italy (0.45%), Sardinia (1.6%) and Greece (0.27%). By contrast, North Africans have about 5% paternal West African admixture,[28] and are about of 75% paternal East African descent[29]
The most recent admixture test from AncestryByDNA, using autosomal markers, mentions that the average South Europeans type with approximately 5% sub-Saharan genetic material (European American = 3%, Northern Euro < 1%). Even though in some cases, for an individual, a low reading such as this may be negated by the confidence interval, in South Europeans low levels of sub-Saharan admixture are consistenly found, making them signature results for these populations. This means they are not stastical "noise," but true results.
Footnotes
1. [1]
2. [Genes, Peoples, and Languages
By L. L. (Luigi Luca) Cavalli-Sforza ISBN 0520228731 ]
3. First Chapter: 'Genes, Peoples, and Languages'
4. Measuring European Population Stratification using Microarray Genotype Data [3]
5. DNA Heritage [4]
6. Semino et al (2000),The Genetic Legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in Extant Europeans, Science Vol '290'. Note: Haplogroup names are different in this article. For ex: Haplogroup I is referred as M170
7. World haplogroup maps [5]
8. Y-chromosome DNA Haplogroups [6]
9. Oxford Journals [7]
10. Y-DNA Haplogroup Tree 2006 [8]
11. Y-DNA Haplogroup R and its Subclades [9]
12. Y-DNA Haplogroup I and its Subclades [10]
13. Population genetics: DNAs from the European Neolithic [11]
14. [12][13]
15. Haak, Wolfgang, et al. "Ancient DNA from the First European Farmers in 7500-Year-Old Neolithic Sites" Science, vol. 310, pg. 1016 (2005)
16. Balter, Michael "Ancient DNA Yields Clues to the Puzzle of European Origins" Science, vol. 310, pg. 964 (2005)
17. Coastline sketched from Mithen (2003) pp. 108-109, Extent of refugia infered from Oppenheimer (2006) p. 103.
18. Richard G. Klein (March 2003). "PALEOANTHROPOLOGY: Whither the Neanderthals?". Science 299 (5612): 1525-1527. DOI:10.1126/science.1082025.
19. Antonio Torroni ''et al.'' "A Signal, from human mtDNA, of Postgalcian Recolonization in Europe, '' Am. J. Human Gen.69:844-852 (2001)
20. Ornella Semin ''et al.'' ''The Genetic Legacy of Paleolithic Homo Sapiens Sapiens in Extant Europeans: A Y Chromosome Perspective'' Science 290:1155-1159, 2000.
21. Nicholas Wade, "Before the Dawn" ISBN 1594200793 , ch. 10.
22. Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca, Paolo Menozzi, and Alberto Piazza. (1994). ''The History and Geography of Human Genes.'' Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08750-4.
23. See Bryan Sykes, ''The Seven Daughters of Eve'', 1st American ed. (New York: Norton, 2001) for an entertaining account of how this consensus was reached. For historical reasons, in the 1980s mtDNA researchers believed that the Indo-European expansion was overwhelmingly a spread of technology and language, not of genes, while the those who studied Y-chromosome lineages believed the opposite. Gradually the mtDNA guys (Sykes) admitted more physical migration into their scenarios, while the Y folks (Peter Underhill) accepted more technology-copying. Eventually, both groups independently reached a 20% Neolithic - 80% Paleolithic ratio of genetic contribution to today's European population. The mtDNA vs. Y discrepancy is explained by noting that in such conquest-based migrations, a common pattern is invading foreign males producing offspring with indigenous females, though significant numbers of females of the spreading culture would also arrive with post-conquest settlers. However, where migrations are essentially economic (as most migrations appear to be) the scenario of male family members preceding females into new territory looking for opportunities is equally probable.
24. Cruciani ''et al.'', Phylogeography of the Y-Chromosome Haplogroup E3b
25.
★ Semino et al. (2004) Origin, Diffusion, and Differentiation of Y-Chromosome Haplogroups E and J: Inferences on the Neolithization of Europe and Later Migratory Events in the Mediterranean Area
26. Y-chromosome Lineages from Portugal, Madeira and Açores Record Elements of Sephardim and Berber Ancestry
27. Pereira et al. 2005 (view the specific data here)
28. Cruciani et al. 2004, Flores et al. 2004, Brion et al. 2005, Brion et al. 2004, Rosser et al. 2000, Semino et al. 2004, and DiGiacomo et al. 2003
29. Bosch et al. 2001 High-Resolution Analysis of Human Y-Chromosome Variation Shows a Sharp Discontinuity and Limited Gene Flow between Northwestern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula
See also
★ European ethnic groups
★ White people
★ Caucasoid
External links
★ Atlas of the Human Journey
★ World Haplogroups Maps
★ Origins of Europeans
★ Genetic Structure of Human Populations.
★ Haplotype R1b
★ Haplogroup R1b
★ Haplogroup R1b
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