Ancient DNA from the First European Farmers


Perhaps this is already mentioned in one of 'prd's
many posts, in which case my apologies for
missing it.
Anyhow, the folowing and the comment on it, is
easy to follow for me as a layman in genetics.

Wolfgang Haak et al (2005)
Ancient DNA from the First European Farmers
in 7500-Year-Old Neolithic Sites
Science Vol. 310. no. 5750, pp. 1016 - 1018
http://tinyurl.com/rc5fc

Abstract

"The ancestry of modern Europeans is a subject
of debate among geneticists, archaeologists,
and anthropologists. A crucial question is the
extent to which Europeans are descended from
the first European farmers in the Neolithic Age
7500 years ago or from Paleolithic hunter-
gatherers who were present in Europe since
40,000 years ago.

Here we present an analysis of ancient DNA
from early European farmers. We successfully
extracted and sequenced intact stretches of
maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA
(mtDNA) from 24 out of 57 Neolithic skeletons
from various locations in Germany, Austria, and
Hungary.

We found that 25% of the Neolithic farmers had
one characteristic mtDNA type and that this
type formerly was widespread among Neolithic
farmers in Central Europe. Europeans today
have a 150-times lower frequency (0.2%) of this
mtDNA type, revealing that these first Neolithic
farmers did not have a strong genetic influence
on modern European female lineages. Our
finding lends weight to a proposed Paleolithic
ancestry for modern Europeans."


From that page you may download the full text of:

A.J. Ammerman, R. Pinhasi, & E. Bánffy
Comment on "Ancient DNA from the First European
Farmers in 7500-Year-Old Neolithic Sites"

and

J. Burger et al. Response to Comment on "Ancient
DNA from the First European Farmers in 7500-
Year-Old Neolithic Sites"

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p.a.



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