Abstract
Sardinians are "outliers" in the European genetic landscape and, according to paleogenomic nuclear data, the closest to early European Neolithic farmers. To learn more about their genetic ancestry, we analyzed 3,491 modern and 21 ancient mitogenomes from Sardinia. We observed that 78.4% of modern mitogenomes cluster into 89 haplogroups that most likely arose in situ. For each Sardinian-specific haplogroup (SSH), we also identified the upstream node in the phylogeny, from which non-Sardinian mitogenomes radiate. This provided minimumandmaximum time estimates for the presence of each SSH on the island. In agreement with demographic evidence, almost all SSHs coalesce in the post-Nuragic, Nuragic and Neolithic-Copper Age periods. For some rare SSHs, however, we could not dismiss the possibility that they might have been on the island prior to the Neolithic, a scenario that would be in agreement with archeological evidence of a Mesolithic occupation of Sardinia.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1230-1239 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Molecular Biology and Evolution |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 5 |
Early online date | 8 Feb 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 May 2017 |
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Maria Pala
- Department of Biological and Geographical Sciences - Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology
- School of Applied Sciences
- Evolutionary Genomics Research Centre - Member
Person: Academic