RESUMO
Modern humans have inhabited the Lake Baikal region since the Upper Paleolithic, though the precise history of its peoples over this long time span is still largely unknown. Here, we report genome-wide data from 19 Upper Paleolithic to Early Bronze Age individuals from this Siberian region. An Upper Paleolithic genome shows a direct link with the First Americans by sharing the admixed ancestry that gave rise to all non-Arctic Native Americans. We also demonstrate the formation of Early Neolithic and Bronze Age Baikal populations as the result of prolonged admixture throughout the eighth to sixth millennium BP. Moreover, we detect genetic interactions with western Eurasian steppe populations and reconstruct Yersinia pestis genomes from two Early Bronze Age individuals without western Eurasian ancestry. Overall, our study demonstrates the most deeply divergent connection between Upper Paleolithic Siberians and the First Americans and reveals human and pathogen mobility across Eurasia during the Bronze Age.
Assuntos
Genoma Humano/genética , Migração Humana/história , Grupos Raciais/genética , Grupos Raciais/história , Ásia , DNA Antigo , Europa (Continente) , História Antiga , Humanos , SibériaRESUMO
Archaeogenetic studies have described two main genetic turnover events in prehistoric western Eurasia: one associated with the spread of farming and a sedentary lifestyle starting around 7000-6000 BC (refs. 1-3) and a second with the expansion of pastoralist groups from the Eurasian steppes starting around 3300 BC (refs. 4,5). The period between these events saw new economies emerging on the basis of key innovations, including metallurgy, wheel and wagon and horse domestication6-9. However, what happened between the demise of the Copper Age settlements around 4250 BC and the expansion of pastoralists remains poorly understood. To address this question, we analysed genome-wide data from 135 ancient individuals from the contact zone between southeastern Europe and the northwestern Black Sea region spanning this critical time period. While we observe genetic continuity between Neolithic and Copper Age groups from major sites in the same region, from around 4500 BC on, groups from the northwestern Black Sea region carried varying amounts of mixed ancestries derived from Copper Age groups and those from the forest/steppe zones, indicating genetic and cultural contact over a period of around 1,000 years earlier than anticipated. We propose that the transfer of critical innovations between farmers and transitional foragers/herders from different ecogeographic zones during this early contact was integral to the formation, rise and expansion of pastoralist groups around 3300 BC.
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Agricultura , Civilização , Pradaria , Animais , Humanos , Agricultura/economia , Agricultura/história , Ásia , Civilização/história , Domesticação , Europa (Continente) , Fazendeiros/história , História Antiga , Cavalos , Comportamento Sedentário/história , Invenções/economia , Invenções/históriaRESUMO
The origin of the medieval Black Death pandemic (AD 1346-1353) has been a topic of continuous investigation because of the pandemic's extensive demographic impact and long-lasting consequences1,2. Until now, the most debated archaeological evidence potentially associated with the pandemic's initiation derives from cemeteries located near Lake Issyk-Kul of modern-day Kyrgyzstan1,3-9. These sites are thought to have housed victims of a fourteenth-century epidemic as tombstone inscriptions directly dated to 1338-1339 state 'pestilence' as the cause of death for the buried individuals9. Here we report ancient DNA data from seven individuals exhumed from two of these cemeteries, Kara-Djigach and Burana. Our synthesis of archaeological, historical and ancient genomic data shows a clear involvement of the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis in this epidemic event. Two reconstructed ancient Y. pestis genomes represent a single strain and are identified as the most recent common ancestor of a major diversification commonly associated with the pandemic's emergence, here dated to the first half of the fourteenth century. Comparisons with present-day diversity from Y. pestis reservoirs in the extended Tian Shan region support a local emergence of the recovered ancient strain. Through multiple lines of evidence, our data support an early fourteenth-century source of the second plague pandemic in central Eurasia.
Assuntos
Peste , Yersinia pestis , Arqueologia , Cemitérios , DNA Antigo/análise , DNA Bacteriano/análise , História Medieval , Humanos , Quirguistão/epidemiologia , Pandemias/história , Filogenia , Peste/epidemiologia , Peste/história , Peste/microbiologia , Yersinia pestis/classificação , Yersinia pestis/patogenicidadeRESUMO
Pestis secunda (1356-1366 CE) is the first of a series of plague outbreaks in Europe that followed the Black Death (1346-1353 CE). Collectively this period is called the Second Pandemic. From a genomic perspective, the majority of post-Black Death strains of Yersinia pestis thus far identified in Europe display diversity accumulated over a period of centuries that form a terminal sub-branch of the Y. pestis phylogeny. It has been debated if these strains arose from local evolution of Y. pestis or if the disease was repeatedly reintroduced from an external source. Plague lineages descended from the pestis secunda, however, are thought to have persisted in non-human reservoirs outside Europe, where they eventually gave rise to the Third Pandemic (19th and 20th centuries). Resolution of competing hypotheses on the origins of the many post-Black Death outbreaks has been hindered in part by the low representation of Y. pestis genomes in archaeological specimens, especially for the pestis secunda. Here we report on five individuals from Germany that were infected with lineages of plague associated with the pestis secunda. For the two genomes of high coverage, one groups within the known diversity of genotypes associated with the pestis secunda, while the second carries an ancestral genotype that places it earlier. Through consideration of historical sources that explore first documentation of the pandemic in today's Central Germany, we argue that these data provide robust evidence to support a post-Black Death evolution of the pathogen within Europe rather than a re-introduction from outside. Additionally, we demonstrate retrievability of Y. pestis DNA in post-cranial remains and highlight the importance of hypothesis-free pathogen screening approaches in evaluations of archaeological samples.
Assuntos
Peste , Yersinia pestis , Humanos , Yersinia pestis/genética , Peste/epidemiologia , DNA Bacteriano/genética , Genoma Bacteriano , Europa (Continente)/epidemiologia , FilogeniaRESUMO
Over the past decade, a genomics revolution, made possible through the development of high-throughput sequencing, has triggered considerable progress in the study of ancient DNA, enabling complete genomes of past organisms to be reconstructed. A newly established branch of this field, ancient pathogen genomics, affords an in-depth view of microbial evolution by providing a molecular fossil record for a number of human-associated pathogens. Recent accomplishments include the confident identification of causative agents from past pandemics, the discovery of microbial lineages that are now extinct, the extrapolation of past emergence events on a chronological scale and the characterization of long-term evolutionary history of microorganisms that remain relevant to public health today. In this Review, we discuss methodological advancements, persistent challenges and novel revelations gained through the study of ancient pathogen genomes.
Assuntos
Doenças Transmissíveis/história , DNA Antigo/análise , Genoma , Genômica/métodos , Sequenciamento de Nucleotídeos em Larga Escala/métodos , Archaea/genética , Archaea/isolamento & purificação , Bactérias/genética , Bactérias/isolamento & purificação , Evolução Biológica , Doenças Transmissíveis/microbiologia , Doenças Transmissíveis/parasitologia , Doenças Transmissíveis/virologia , DNA Antigo/isolamento & purificação , Fósseis , Saúde Global/história , História do Século XIX , História do Século XXI , História Antiga , História Medieval , Humanos , Vigilância em Saúde Pública/métodos , Vírus/genética , Vírus/isolamento & purificaçãoRESUMO
The bacterial pathogen Yersinia pestis gave rise to devastating outbreaks throughout human history, and ancient DNA evidence has shown it afflicted human populations as far back as the Neolithic. Y. pestis genomes recovered from the Eurasian Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (LNBA) period have uncovered key evolutionary steps that led to its emergence from a Yersinia pseudotuberculosis-like progenitor; however, the number of reconstructed LNBA genomes are too few to explore its diversity during this critical period of development. Here, we present 17 Y. pestis genomes dating to 5,000 to 2,500 y BP from a wide geographic expanse across Eurasia. This increased dataset enabled us to explore correlations between temporal, geographical, and genetic distance. Our results suggest a nonflea-adapted and potentially extinct single lineage that persisted over millennia without significant parallel diversification, accompanied by rapid dispersal across continents throughout this period, a trend not observed in other pathogens for which ancient genomes are available. A stepwise pattern of gene loss provides further clues on its early evolution and potential adaptation. We also discover the presence of the flea-adapted form of Y. pestis in Bronze Age Iberia, previously only identified in in the Caucasus and the Volga regions, suggesting a much wider geographic spread of this form of Y. pestis. Together, these data reveal the dynamic nature of plague's formative years in terms of its early evolution and ecology.
Assuntos
Genoma Bacteriano , Peste , Yersinia pestis , Criação de Animais Domésticos/história , Animais , DNA Antigo , Variação Genética , História Antiga , Migração Humana/história , Humanos , Filogenia , Peste/epidemiologia , Peste/história , Peste/microbiologia , Yersinia pestis/classificação , Yersinia pestis/genética , Yersinia pestis/isolamento & purificaçãoRESUMO
The last century has witnessed progress in the study of ancient infectious disease from purely medical descriptions of past ailments to dynamic interpretations of past population health that draw upon multiple perspectives. The recent adoption of high-throughput DNA sequencing has led to an expanded understanding of pathogen presence, evolution, and ecology across the globe. This genomic revolution has led to the identification of disease-causing microbes in both expected and unexpected contexts, while also providing for the genomic characterization of ancient pathogens previously believed to be unattainable by available methods. In this review we explore the development of DNA-based ancient pathogen research, the specialized methods and tools that have emerged to authenticate and explore infectious disease of the past, and the unique challenges that persist in molecular paleopathology. We offer guidelines to mitigate the impact of these challenges, which will allow for more reliable interpretations of data in this rapidly evolving field of investigation.
Assuntos
Doenças Transmissíveis/história , DNA Antigo/análise , Fósseis/microbiologia , Paleopatologia/métodos , Evolução Biológica , DNA Bacteriano , Fósseis/parasitologia , Genoma Bacteriano , Genômica/métodos , Helicobacter pylori/genética , Sequenciamento de Nucleotídeos em Larga Escala/métodos , História Antiga , Humanos , Mycobacterium leprae/genética , Mycobacterium tuberculosis/genética , Paleontologia/métodos , Filogenia , Yersinia pestis/genéticaRESUMO
Pathogens and associated outbreaks of infectious disease exert selective pressure on human populations, and any changes in allele frequencies that result may be especially evident for genes involved in immunity. In this regard, the 1346-1353 Yersinia pestis-caused Black Death pandemic, with continued plague outbreaks spanning several hundred years, is one of the most devastating recorded in human history. To investigate the potential impact of Y. pestis on human immunity genes, we extracted DNA from 36 plague victims buried in a mass grave in Ellwangen, Germany in the 16th century. We targeted 488 immune-related genes, including HLA, using a novel in-solution hybridization capture approach. In comparison with 50 modern native inhabitants of Ellwangen, we find differences in allele frequencies for variants of the innate immunity proteins Ficolin-2 and NLRP14 at sites involved in determining specificity. We also observed that HLA-DRB1*13 is more than twice as frequent in the modern population, whereas HLA-B alleles encoding an isoleucine at position 80 (I-80+), HLA C*06:02 and HLA-DPB1 alleles encoding histidine at position 9 are half as frequent in the modern population. Simulations show that natural selection has likely driven these allele frequency changes. Thus, our data suggest that allele frequencies of HLA genes involved in innate and adaptive immunity responsible for extracellular and intracellular responses to pathogenic bacteria, such as Y. pestis, could have been affected by the historical epidemics that occurred in Europe.
Assuntos
Peste , Yersinia pestis , DNA , Genômica , Humanos , Pandemias/história , Peste/genética , Yersinia pestis/genéticaRESUMO
During the course of fungal infection, pathogen recognition by the innate immune system is critical to initiate efficient protective immune responses. The primary event that triggers immune responses is the binding of Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs), which are expressed at the surface of host immune cells, to Pathogen-Associated Molecular Patterns (PAMPs) located predominantly in the fungal cell wall. Most fungi have mannosylated PAMPs in their cell walls and these are recognized by a range of C-type lectin receptors (CTLs). However, the precise spatial distribution of the ligands that induce immune responses within the cell walls of fungi are not well defined. We used recombinant IgG Fc-CTLs fusions of three murine mannan detecting CTLs, including dectin-2, the mannose receptor (MR) carbohydrate recognition domains (CRDs) 4-7 (CRD4-7), and human DC-SIGN (hDC-SIGN) and of the ß-1,3 glucan-binding lectin dectin-1 to map PRR ligands in the fungal cell wall of fungi grown in vitro in rich and minimal media. We show that epitopes of mannan-specific CTL receptors can be clustered or diffuse, superficial or buried in the inner cell wall. We demonstrate that PRR ligands do not correlate well with phylogenetic relationships between fungi, and that Fc-lectin binding discriminated between mannosides expressed on different cell morphologies of the same fungus. We also demonstrate CTL epitope differentiation during different phases of the growth cycle of Candida albicans and that MR and DC-SIGN labelled outer chain N-mannans whilst dectin-2 labelled core N-mannans displayed deeper in the cell wall. These immune receptor maps of fungal walls of in vitro grown cells therefore reveal remarkable spatial, temporal and chemical diversity, indicating that the triggering of immune recognition events originates from multiple physical origins at the fungal cell surface.
Assuntos
Parede Celular/imunologia , Fungos/imunologia , Lectinas Tipo C/imunologia , Mananas/imunologia , Micoses/imunologia , Filogenia , Moléculas de Adesão Celular/genética , Moléculas de Adesão Celular/imunologia , Parede Celular/química , Parede Celular/genética , Fungos/química , Fungos/classificação , Fungos/genética , Humanos , Lectinas Tipo C/genética , Mananas/análise , Micoses/genética , Micoses/microbiologia , Receptores de Superfície Celular/genética , Receptores de Superfície Celular/imunologiaRESUMO
The first historically documented pandemic caused by Yersinia pestis began as the Justinianic Plague in 541 within the Roman Empire and continued as the so-called First Pandemic until 750. Although paleogenomic studies have previously identified the causative agent as Y. pestis, little is known about the bacterium's spread, diversity, and genetic history over the course of the pandemic. To elucidate the microevolution of the bacterium during this time period, we screened human remains from 21 sites in Austria, Britain, Germany, France, and Spain for Y. pestis DNA and reconstructed eight genomes. We present a methodological approach assessing single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ancient bacterial genomes, facilitating qualitative analyses of low coverage genomes from a metagenomic background. Phylogenetic analysis on the eight reconstructed genomes reveals the existence of previously undocumented Y. pestis diversity during the sixth to eighth centuries, and provides evidence for the presence of multiple distinct Y. pestis strains in Europe. We offer genetic evidence for the presence of the Justinianic Plague in the British Isles, previously only hypothesized from ambiguous documentary accounts, as well as the parallel occurrence of multiple derived strains in central and southern France, Spain, and southern Germany. Four of the reported strains form a polytomy similar to others seen across the Y. pestis phylogeny, associated with the Second and Third Pandemics. We identified a deletion of a 45-kb genomic region in the most recent First Pandemic strains affecting two virulence factors, intriguingly overlapping with a deletion found in 17th- to 18th-century genomes of the Second Pandemic.
Assuntos
Surtos de Doenças/história , Genoma Bacteriano , Peste/microbiologia , Yersinia pestis/genética , Europa (Continente)/epidemiologia , História Medieval , Humanos , Peste/epidemiologia , Peste/história , Yersinia pestis/patogenicidadeRESUMO
The Justinianic Plague, which started in the sixth century and lasted to the mid eighth century, is thought to be the first of three historically documented plague pandemics causing massive casualties. Historical accounts and molecular data suggest the bacterium Yersinia pestis as its etiological agent. Here we present a new high-coverage (17.9-fold) Y. pestis genome obtained from a sixth-century skeleton recovered from a southern German burial site close to Munich. The reconstructed genome enabled the detection of 30 unique substitutions as well as structural differences that have not been previously described. We report indels affecting a lacl family transcription regulator gene as well as nonsynonymous substitutions in the nrdE, fadJ, and pcp genes, that have been suggested as plague virulence determinants or have been shown to be upregulated in different models of plague infection. In addition, we identify 19 false positive substitutions in a previously published lower-coverage Y. pestis genome from another archaeological site of the same time period and geographical region that is otherwise genetically identical to the high-coverage genome sequence reported here, suggesting low-genetic diversity of the plague during the sixth century in rural southern Germany.
Assuntos
DNA Antigo/análise , Peste/microbiologia , Yersinia pestis/genética , Sequência de Bases , DNA Bacteriano/genética , Variação Genética , Genoma Bacteriano , Sequenciamento de Nucleotídeos em Larga Escala/métodos , Humanos , Pandemias , Virulência/genéticaRESUMO
Endometriosis is a common benign pathology, characterised by the presence of endometrial tissue outside the endometrial cavity with a prevalence of 10-15% in reproductive-aged women. The pathogenesis is not completely understood, and several theories have been proposed to explain the aetiology. Our group has recently described the presence of ectopic endometrium in a consistent number of human female foetuses analysed by autopsy, reinforcing the hypothesis that endometriosis may be generated by defects during the organogenesis of the female reproductive trait. Herein, in order to identify, at molecular level, changes involved in the disease, we compared the transcriptional profiling of ectopic endometrium with the corresponding eutopic one. Statistical analyses lead us to identify some genes specifically deregulated in the ectopic endometrium, that are involved in gonad developmental process or in wound healing process. Among them, we identified BMP4 and GREM1. BMP4 was never associated before to endometriosis and is involved in the mesoderm-Müllerian duct differentiation. GREM1 is needed for the initial step of the ureter growth and perhaps could possibly be involved in Müller ducts differentiation. These molecules might be related to the endometriosis aetiology since we showed that their expression is not related to the menstrual cycle phase both at RNA and at protein levels. These data support the theory that embryological defects could be responsible of the endometriosis generation.
Assuntos
Endometriose/metabolismo , Endométrio/metabolismo , Organogênese/genética , Adulto , Proteína Morfogenética Óssea 4/genética , Proteína Morfogenética Óssea 4/metabolismo , Endometriose/genética , Endometriose/patologia , Endométrio/patologia , Feminino , Regulação da Expressão Gênica , Genoma Humano , Humanos , Peptídeos e Proteínas de Sinalização Intercelular/genética , Peptídeos e Proteínas de Sinalização Intercelular/metabolismo , Pessoa de Meia-IdadeRESUMO
Ancient DNA preserved in the dental pulp offers the opportunity to characterize the genome of some of the deadliest pathogens in human history. However, while DNA capture technologies help, focus sequencing efforts, and therefore, reduce experimental costs, the recovery of ancient pathogen DNA remains challenging. Here, we tracked the kinetics of ancient Yersinia pestis DNA release in solution during a pre-digestion of the dental pulp. We found that most of the ancient Y. pestis DNA is released within 60 min at 37°C in our experimental conditions. We recommend a simple pre-digestion as an economical procedure to obtain extracts enriched in ancient pathogen DNA, as longer digestion times release other types of templates, including host DNA. Combining this procedure with DNA capture, we characterized the genome sequences of 12 ancient Y. pestis bacteria from France dating to the second pandemic outbreaks of the 17th and 18th centuries Common Era.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND/AIM: Endometriosis is a gynecological estrogen-dependent inflammatory disease due to ectopic endometrial tissue and often associated with pelvic pain. Despite its high prevalence, there are still uncertainties about its pathogenesis, diagnosis, and therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study presents a retrospective study conducted on 4,401 endometriosis patients, 584 of which underwent laparoscopic procedures. The archived data about clinical signs, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results, topography of the endometriosis lesions (obtained via laparoscopy) associated diseases, sample analysis and histological findings were analyzed. Next, the statistical associations between the information for each case, provided by these diagnostic tools were determined. RESULTS: MRI is the most sensitive and specific diagnostic system for ovarian lesions, but poor in sensitivity and specificity for deep endometriosis lesions and not indicated for peritoneal lesions which remain the exclusive prerogative of laparoscopy. Clinical signs are essential for diagnosing deep lesions. The Ca125 and Ca19.9 markers have a poor reliability and their negativity in symptomatic patients has no clinical value, while in positive cases it could probably be used as a monitoring parameter. CONCLUSION: The results generated will help provide an accurate picture of the topography and distribution of endometriotic lesions. Correlation analyses between the data generated by the clinical-instrumental examinations and those on the site of the disease identified by laparoscopy, allow to define the predictive value of the clinical-instrumental signs in the diagnosis and localization of endometriotic disease.
Assuntos
Endometriose , Laparoscopia , Cistos Ovarianos , Neoplasias Ovarianas , Antígeno CA-19-9 , Endometriose/diagnóstico por imagem , Endometriose/epidemiologia , Feminino , Humanos , Reprodutibilidade dos Testes , Estudos RetrospectivosRESUMO
During the late 3rd millennium BCE, the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East witnessed societal changes in many regions, which are usually explained with a combination of social and climatic factors.1-4 However, recent archaeogenetic research forces us to rethink models regarding the role of infectious diseases in past societal trajectories.5 The plague bacterium Yersinia pestis, which was involved in some of the most destructive historical pandemics,5-8 circulated across Eurasia at least from the onset of the 3rd millennium BCE,9-13 but the challenging preservation of ancient DNA in warmer climates has restricted the identification of Y. pestis from this period to temperate climatic regions. As such, evidence from culturally prominent regions such as the Eastern Mediterranean is currently lacking. Here, we present genetic evidence for the presence of Y. pestis and Salmonella enterica, the causative agent of typhoid/enteric fever, from this period of transformation in Crete, detected at the cave site Hagios Charalambos. We reconstructed one Y. pestis genome that forms part of a now-extinct lineage of Y. pestis strains from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age that were likely not yet adapted for transmission via fleas. Furthermore, we reconstructed two ancient S. enterica genomes from the Para C lineage, which cluster with contemporary strains that were likely not yet fully host adapted to humans. The occurrence of these two virulent pathogens at the end of the Early Minoan period in Crete emphasizes the necessity to re-introduce infectious diseases as an additional factor possibly contributing to the transformation of early complex societies in the Aegean and beyond.
Assuntos
Salmonella enterica , Yersinia pestis , Genoma Bacteriano , Grécia , Humanos , Filogenia , Salmonella enterica/genética , Yersinia pestis/genéticaRESUMO
Modern humans expanded into Eurasia more than 40,000 years ago following their dispersal out of Africa. These Eurasians carried ~2-3% Neanderthal ancestry in their genomes, originating from admixture with Neanderthals that took place sometime between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, probably in the Middle East. In Europe, the modern human expansion preceded the disappearance of Neanderthals from the fossil record by 3,000-5,000 years. The genetic makeup of the first Europeans who colonized the continent more than 40,000 years ago remains poorly understood since few specimens have been studied. Here, we analyse a genome generated from the skull of a female individual from Zlatý kun, Czechia. We found that she belonged to a population that appears to have contributed genetically neither to later Europeans nor to Asians. Her genome carries ~3% Neanderthal ancestry, similar to those of other Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. However, the lengths of the Neanderthal segments are longer than those observed in the currently oldest modern human genome of the ~45,000-year-old Ust'-Ishim individual from Siberia, suggesting that this individual from Zlatý kun is one of the earliest Eurasian inhabitants following the expansion out of Africa.
Assuntos
Crânio , África , República Tcheca , Europa (Continente) , Feminino , Humanos , Recém-Nascido , Oriente Médio , SibériaRESUMO
Ancient DNA and RNA are valuable data sources for a wide range of disciplines. Within the field of ancient metagenomics, the number of published genetic datasets has risen dramatically in recent years, and tracking this data for reuse is particularly important for large-scale ecological and evolutionary studies of individual taxa and communities of both microbes and eukaryotes. AncientMetagenomeDir (archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3980833 ) is a collection of annotated metagenomic sample lists derived from published studies that provide basic, standardised metadata and accession numbers to allow rapid data retrieval from online repositories. These tables are community-curated and span multiple sub-disciplines to ensure adequate breadth and consensus in metadata definitions, as well as longevity of the database. Internal guidelines and automated checks facilitate compatibility with established sequence-read archives and term-ontologies, and ensure consistency and interoperability for future meta-analyses. This collection will also assist in standardising metadata reporting for future ancient metagenomic studies.
Assuntos
Bases de Dados Genéticas , Metagenoma , Metagenômica , Humanos , Metadados , PublicaçõesRESUMO
The Scythians were a multitude of horse-warrior nomad cultures dwelling in the Eurasian steppe during the first millennium BCE. Because of the lack of first-hand written records, little is known about the origins and relations among the different cultures. To address these questions, we produced genome-wide data for 111 ancient individuals retrieved from 39 archaeological sites from the first millennia BCE and CE across the Central Asian Steppe. We uncovered major admixture events in the Late Bronze Age forming the genetic substratum for two main Iron Age gene-pools emerging around the Altai and the Urals respectively. Their demise was mirrored by new genetic turnovers, linked to the spread of the eastern nomad empires in the first centuries CE. Compared to the high genetic heterogeneity of the past, the homogenization of the present-day Kazakhs gene pool is notable, likely a result of 400 years of strict exogamous social rules.
RESUMO
The origin, development, and legacy of the enigmatic Etruscan civilization from the central region of the Italian peninsula known as Etruria have been debated for centuries. Here we report a genomic time transect of 82 individuals spanning almost two millennia (800 BCE to 1000 CE) across Etruria and southern Italy. During the Iron Age, we detect a component of Indo-Europeanassociated steppe ancestry and the lack of recent Anatolian-related admixture among the putative nonIndo-Europeanspeaking Etruscans. Despite comprising diverse individuals of central European, northern African, and Near Eastern ancestry, the local gene pool is largely maintained across the first millennium BCE. This drastically changes during the Roman Imperial period where we report an abrupt population-wide shift to ~50% admixture with eastern Mediterranean ancestry. Last, we identify northern European components appearing in central Italy during the Early Middle Ages, which thus formed the genetic landscape of present-day Italian populations.
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Europe's prehistory oversaw dynamic and complex interactions of diverse societies, hitherto unexplored at detailed regional scales. Studying 271 human genomes dated ~4900 to 1600 BCE from the European heartland, Bohemia, we reveal unprecedented genetic changes and social processes. Major migrations preceded the arrival of "steppe" ancestry, and at ~2800 BCE, three genetically and culturally differentiated groups coexisted. Corded Ware appeared by 2900 BCE, were initially genetically diverse, did not derive all steppe ancestry from known Yamnaya, and assimilated females of diverse backgrounds. Both Corded Ware and Bell Beaker groups underwent dynamic changes, involving sharp reductions and complete replacements of Y-chromosomal diversity at ~2600 and ~2400 BCE, respectively, the latter accompanied by increased Neolithic-like ancestry. The Bronze Age saw new social organization emerge amid a ≥40% population turnover.