Human mitochondrial DNA lineages in Iron-Age Fennoscandia suggest incipient admixture and eastern introduction of farming-related maternal ancestry.

Översti S., Majander K., Salmela E., Salo K., Arppe L., Belskiy S., Etu-Sihvola H., Laakso V., Mikkola E., Pfrengle S., Putkonen M., Taavitsainen J-P., Vuoristo K., Wessman A., Sajantila A., Oinonen M., Haak W., Schuenemann VJ., Krause J., Palo JU., Onkamo P.

Human ancient DNA studies have revealed high mobility in Europe's past, and have helped to decode the human history on the Eurasian continent. Northeastern Europe, especially north of the Baltic Sea, however, remains less well understood largely due to the lack of preserved human remains. Finland, with a divergent population history from most of Europe, offers a unique perspective to hunter-gatherer way of life, but thus far genetic information on prehistoric human groups in Finland is nearly absent. Here we report 103 complete ancient mitochondrial genomes from human remains dated to AD 300-1800, and explore mtDNA diversity associated with hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers. The results indicate largely unadmixed mtDNA pools of differing ancestries from Iron-Age on, suggesting a rather late genetic shift from hunter-gatherers towards farmers in North-East Europe. Furthermore, the data suggest eastern introduction of farmer-related haplogroups into Finland, contradicting contemporary genetic patterns in Finns.

DOI

10.1038/s41598-019-51045-8

Type

Journal article

Publication Date

2019-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Volume

9

Addresses

Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. sanni.oversti@helsinki.fi.

Keywords

Humans, Iron, DNA, Mitochondrial, Crosses, Genetic, Agriculture, History, Ancient, Europe, Finland, Oceans and Seas, Genome, Mitochondrial, Human Migration, Farmers, Maternal Inheritance, Farms, DNA, Ancient, White People

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