| 1. |
- Yurtman, Erinç, et al.
(författare)
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Archaeogenetic analysis of Neolithic sheep from Anatolia suggests a complex demographic history since domestication
- 2021
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Ingår i: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 4:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sheep were among the first domesticated animals, but their demographic history is little understood. Here we analyzed nuclear polymorphism and mitochondrial data (mtDNA) from ancient central and west Anatolian sheep dating from Epipaleolithic to late Neolithic, comparatively with modern-day breeds and central Asian Neolithic/Bronze Age sheep (OBI). Analyzing ancient nuclear data, we found that Anatolian Neolithic sheep (ANS) are genetically closest to present-day European breeds relative to Asian breeds, a conclusion supported by mtDNA haplogroup frequencies. In contrast, OBI showed higher genetic affinity to present-day Asian breeds. These results suggest that the east-west genetic structure observed in present-day breeds had already emerged by 6000 BCE, hinting at multiple sheep domestication episodes or early wild introgression in southwest Asia. Furthermore, we found that ANS are genetically distinct from all modern breeds. Our results suggest that European and Anatolian domestic sheep gene pools have been strongly remolded since the Neolithic.
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| 2. |
- Altınışık, N. Ezgi, et al.
(författare)
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A genomic snapshot of demographic and cultural dynamism in Upper Mesopotamia during the Neolithic Transition
- 2022
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Ingår i: Science Advances. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 2375-2548. ; 8:44
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Upper Mesopotamia played a key role in the Neolithic Transition in Southwest Asia through marked innovations in symbolism, technology, and diet. We present 13 ancient genomes (c. 8500 to 7500 cal BCE) from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Çayönü in the Tigris basin together with bioarchaeological and material culture data. Our findings reveal that Çayönü was a genetically diverse population, carrying mixed ancestry from western and eastern Fertile Crescent, and that the community received immigrants. Our results further suggest that the community was organized along biological family lines. We document bodily interventions such as head shaping and cauterization among the individuals examined, reflecting Çayönü’s cultural ingenuity. Last, we identify Upper Mesopotamia as the likely source of eastern gene flow into Neolithic Anatolia, in line with material culture evidence. We hypothesize that Upper Mesopotamia’s cultural dynamism during the Neolithic Transition was the product not only of its fertile lands but also of its interregional demographic connections.
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| 3. |
- Atag, Gözde, et al.
(författare)
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Population Genomic History of the Endangered Anatolian and Cyprian Mouflons in Relation to Worldwide Wild, Feral, and Domestic Sheep Lineages
- 2024
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Ingår i: Genome Biology and Evolution. - : Oxford University Press. - 1759-6653. ; 16:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Once widespread in their homelands, the Anatolian mouflon (Ovis gmelini anatolica) and the Cyprian mouflon (Ovis gmelini ophion) were driven to near extinction during the 20th century and are currently listed as endangered populations by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. While the exact origins of these lineages remain unclear, they have been suggested to be close relatives of domestic sheep or remnants of proto-domestic sheep. Here, we study whole genome sequences of n = 5 Anatolian mouflons and n = 10 Cyprian mouflons in terms of population history and diversity, comparing them with eight other extant sheep lineages. We find reciprocal genetic affinity between Anatolian and Cyprian mouflons and domestic sheep, higher than all other studied wild sheep genomes, including the Iranian mouflon (O. gmelini). Studying diversity indices, we detect a considerable load of short runs of homozygosity blocks (<2 Mb) in both Anatolian and Cyprian mouflons, reflecting small effective population size (N-e). Meanwhile, N-e and mutation load estimates are lower in Cyprian compared with Anatolian mouflons, suggesting the purging of recessive deleterious variants in Cyprian sheep under a small long-term N-e, possibly attributable to founder effects, island isolation, introgression from domestic lineages, or differences in their bottleneck dynamics. Expanding our analyses to worldwide wild and feral Ovis genomes, we observe varying viability metrics among different lineages and a limited consistency between viability metrics and International Union for Conservation of Nature conservation status. Factors such as recent inbreeding, introgression, and unique population dynamics may have contributed to the observed disparities.
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| 4. |
- Ceballos, Francisco C., et al.
(författare)
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Human inbreeding has decreased in time through the Holocene
- 2021
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Ingår i: Current Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0960-9822 .- 1879-0445. ; 31:17, s. 3925-3934
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The history of human inbreeding is controversial.(1) In particular, how the development of sedentary and/or agricultural societies may have influenced overall inbreeding levels, relative to those of hunter-gatherer communities, is unclear.(2-5) Here, we present an approach for reliable estimation of runs of homozygosity (ROHs) in genomes with >= 3x mean sequence coverage across >1 million SNPs and apply this to 411 ancient Eurasian genomes from the last 15,000 years.(5-34) We show that the frequency of inbreeding, as measured by ROHs, has decreased over time. The strongest effect is associated with the Neolithic transition, but the trend has since continued, indicating a population size effect on inbreeding prevalence. We further show that most inbreeding in our historical sample can be attributed to small population size instead of consanguinity. Cases of high consanguinity were rare and only observed among members of farming societies in our sample. Despite the lack of evidence for common consanguinity in our ancient sample, consanguineous traditions are today prevalent in various modem-day Eurasian societies,(1, 35-37) suggesting that such practices may have become widespread within the last few millennia.
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| 5. |
- Larsson, Martin N. A., et al.
(författare)
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Ancient Sheep Genomes Reveal Four Millennia of North European Short-Tailed Sheep in the Baltic Sea Region
- 2024
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Ingår i: Genome Biology and Evolution. - : Oxford University Press. - 1759-6653. ; 16:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sheep are among the earliest domesticated livestock species, with a wide variety of breeds present today. However, it remains unclear how far back this diversity goes, with formal documentation only dating back a few centuries. North European short-tailed (NEST) breeds are often assumed to be among the oldest domestic sheep populations, even thought to represent relicts of the earliest sheep expansions during the Neolithic period reaching Scandinavia <6,000 years ago. This study sequenced the genomes (up to 11.6X) of five sheep remains from the Baltic islands of Gotland and Åland, dating from the Late Neolithic (∼4,100 cal BP) to historical times (∼1,600 CE). Our findings indicate that these ancient sheep largely possessed the genetic characteristics of modern NEST breeds, suggesting a substantial degree of long-term continuity of this sheep type in the Baltic Sea region. Despite the wide temporal spread, population genetic analyses show high levels of affinity between the ancient genomes and they also exhibit relatively high genetic diversity when compared to modern NEST breeds, implying a loss of diversity in most breeds during the last centuries associated with breed formation and recent bottlenecks. Our results shed light on the development of breeds in Northern Europe specifically as well as the development of genetic diversity in sheep breeds, and their expansion from the domestication center in general.
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| 6. |
- Mereu, Paolo, et al.
(författare)
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Matrilineal phylogeography of wild and feral sheep from the Mediterranean and the Middle East
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Mouflons are flagship species of the Mediterranean islands werethey persist. Once thought to be the remnants of a Europeanpopulation, archaeology suggests they were imported by humansto the islands of Cyprus in the Early Neolithic and laterto Corsica and Sardinia, and their status as wild animals hassince been disputed. To study the relationship between thisisland populations and other domestic and wild sheep fromthe Mediterranean we sequenced mitogenomes of 44 mouflonsfrom the islands, plus modern and ancient Sardinian domesticsheep and Anatolian mouflons. We used those in addition withpublicly available mitogenomes to reconstruct the phylogeny ofsheep and its closest wild relative, the Asiatic mouflon (Ovisgmelini) to describe how the free-ranging populations on theMediterranean islands fit. Our analysis highlights the structureof haplogroup B, where Sardinian mouflons form two geographicallyseparate clusters with gene flow between them and withdomestic sheep, and the isolation of the Corsican population,which appears as a basal lineage to all other sheep from thishaplogroup. While Corsican and Sardinian mouflon belong tobasal lineages of the domestic haplogroups associated with theearly European expansion, Cyprus mouflons are more relatedto Anatolian and Iranian mouflons belonging to the wild haplogroupX, which seems to be basal to the domestic C-E complex.These results highlight the unique genetic structure of thisisland populations while placing them in the wider context ofthe evolution of the Ovis genus.
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| 7. |
- Morell Miranda, Pedro, et al.
(författare)
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Ancient genomes reveal 7000 years of interconnected Demographic History between Sheep and Humans in Iberia.
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As the first domestic livestock species, sheep has had a fundamentalrole in human populations since the Neolithic. Theirdemographic history is, however, poorly understood. We successfullysequenced 13 ancient sheep from 2 sites in NorthernIberia to up to 8.74× and 1 modern Corsican mouflon to describethis demographic history at the Western extreme of theMediterranean. Our results support an initial maritime expansioninto Iberia and that European mouflons descended fromferalized Neolithic sheep. We also describe a secondary expansionof Eastern ancestry in sheep at the same time when humanSteppe ancestry arrived to Iberia, and when we expect woollysheep to expand through Europe. Lastly, we found a third expansionin the Mediterranean area during the Roman period,when some historical sources mentioned fine-wool sheep beingtraded. We see evidence that this expansion had a significanteffect in shaping the modern European sheep gene pool leadingto modern breeds like the popular Merino. These resultsillustrate the dynamic history of Iberian sheep populations, andhow human cultural and demographic changes left their footprintsin the sheep gene pool, marking them as a useful proxyfor describing complex human demographic events.
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| 8. |
- Yaka, Reyhan, 1988-, et al.
(författare)
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Comparison and optimization of protocols and whole-genome capture conditions for ancient DNA samples
- 2024
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Ingår i: BioTechniques. - 0736-6205 .- 1940-9818. ; 76:5, s. 221-228
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ancient DNA (aDNA) obtained from human remains is typically fragmented and present in relatively low amounts. Here we investigate a set of optimal methods for producing aDNA data by comparing silica-based DNA extraction and aDNA library preparation protocols. We also test the efficiency of whole-genome enrichment (WGC) on ancient human samples by modifying a number of parameter combinations. We find that the Dabney extraction protocol performs significantly better than alternatives. We further observed a positive trend with the BEST library protocol indicating lower clonality. Notably, our results suggest that WGC is effective at retrieving endogenous DNA, particularly from poorly-preserved human samples, by increasing human endogenous proportions by 5x. Thus, aDNA studies will be most likely to benefit from our results.
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| 9. |
- Yaka, Reyhan, et al.
(författare)
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Variable kinship patterns in Neolithic Anatolia revealed by ancient genomes
- 2021
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Ingår i: Current Biology. - : Cell Press. - 0960-9822 .- 1879-0445. ; 31:11, s. 2455-2468.e18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The social organization of the first fully sedentary societies that emerged during the Neolithic period in Southwest Asia remains enigmatic,(1) mainly because material culture studies provide limited insight into this issue. However, because Neolithic Anatolian communities often buried their dead beneath domestic buildings,(2) household composition and social structure can be studied through these human remains. Here, we describe genetic relatedness among co-burials associated with domestic buildings in Neolithic Anatolia using 59 ancient genomes, including 22 new genomes from Asxikli Hoyuk and Catalhoyuk. We infer pedigree relationships by simultaneously analyzing multiple types of information, including autosomal and X chromosome kinship coefficients, maternal markers, and radiocarbon dating. In two early Neolithic villages dating to the 9th and 8th millennia BCE, Asxikli Hoyuk and Boncuklu, we discover that siblings and parent-offspring pairings were frequent within domestic structures, which provides the first direct indication of close genetic relationships among co-burials. In contrast, in the 7th millennium BCE sites of Catalhoyuk and Barcin, where we study subadults interred within and around houses, we find close genetic relatives to be rare. Hence, genetic relatedness may not have played a major role in the choice of burial location at these latter two sites, at least for subadults. This supports the hypothesis that in Catalhoyuk,(3-5) and possibly in some other Neolithic communities, domestic structures may have served as burial location for social units incorporating biologically unrelated individuals. Our results underscore the diversity of kin structures in Neolithic communities during this important phase of sociocultural development.
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