Thanks for posting this item Steven! This article is of immense importance to the understanding of the genetics of the British Isles - especially in clarifying the demic versus cultural diffusion controversy. David. On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 6:26 AM, steven perkins via < genealogy-dna@rootsweb.com> wrote: > ​Open access: > http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/12/22/1518445113.abstract.html?etoc > ​ > > ​​ > *Neolithic and Bronze Age migration to Ireland and establishment of the > insular Atlantic genome* > > Lara M. Cassidya,1, > Rui Martinianoa,1, > Eileen M. Murphyb, > Matthew D. Teasdalea, > James Malloryb, > Barrie Hartwellb, and > Daniel G. Bradleya,2 > > Author Affiliations > > Edited by Montgomery Slatkin, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and > approved November 18, 2015 (received for review September 18, 2015) > > Significance > > Modern Europe has been shaped by two episodes in prehistory, the advent of > agriculture and later metallurgy. These innovations brought not only > massive cultural change but also, in certain parts of the continent, a > change in genetic structure. The manner in which these transitions affected > the islands of Ireland and Britain on the northwestern edge of the > continent remains the subject of debate. The first ancient whole genomes > from Ireland, including two at high coverage, demonstrate that large-scale > genetic shifts accompanied both transitions. *We also observe a strong > signal of continuity between modern day Irish populations and the Bronze > Age individuals, one of whom is a carrier for the C282Y hemochromatosis > mutation, which has its highest frequencies in Ireland today.* > > Abstract > > The Neolithic and Bronze Age transitions were profound cultural shifts > catalyzed in parts of Europe by migrations, first of early farmers from the > Near East and then Bronze Age herders from the Pontic Steppe. *However, a > decades-long, unresolved controversy is whether population change or > cultural adoption occurred at the Atlantic edge, within the British Isles. > We address this issue by using the first whole genome data from prehistoric > Irish individuals. * > > A Neolithic woman (3343–3020 cal BC) from a megalithic burial (10.3× > coverage) possessed a genome of predominantly Near Eastern origin. She had > some hunter–gatherer ancestry but belonged to a population of large > effective size, suggesting a substantial influx of early farmers to the > island. Three Bronze Age individuals from Rathlin Island (2026–1534 cal > BC), including one high coverage (10.5×) genome, showed substantial Steppe > genetic heritage indicating that the European population upheavals of the > third millennium manifested all of the way from southern Siberia to the > western ocean. This turnover invites the possibility of accompanying > introduction of Indo-European, perhaps early Celtic, language. > > *Irish Bronze Age haplotypic similarity is strongest within modern Irish, > Scottish, and Welsh populations, and several important genetic variants > that today show maximal or very high frequencies in Ireland appear at this > horizon. These include those coding for lactase persistence, blue eye > color, Y chromosome R1b haplotypes, and the hemochromatosis C282Y allele; > to our knowledge, the first detection of a known Mendelian disease variant > in prehistory. These findings together suggest the establishment of central > attributes of the Irish genome 4,000 y ago.* > > ancient DNA > > genomics > > population genetics > > Footnotes > > 1L.M.C. and R.M. contributed equally to this work. > > 2To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: dbradley@tcd.ie. > > Author contributions: D.G.B. designed research; L.M.C. and R.M. performed > research; E.M.M. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; L.M.C., R.M., > M.D.T., and D.G.B. analyzed data; and L.M.C., R.M., E.M.M., M.D.T., J.M., > B.H., and D.G.B. wrote the paper. > > The authors declare no conflict of interest. > > This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. > > Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited > in the European Nucleotide Archive (project accession no. PRJEB11995). > > This article contains supporting information online > atwww.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1518445113/-/DCSupplemental. > > Freely available online through the PNAS open access option. > > http://www.pnas.org/preview_site/misc/userlicense.xhtml > > -- > Steven C. Perkins SCPerkins@gmail.com http://stevencperkins.com/ > Indigenous Peoples' Rights http://intelligent-internet.info/law/ipr2.html > Indigenous & Ethnic Minority Legal News http://iemlnews.blogspot.com/ > Online Journal of Genetics and Genealogy http://jgg-online.blogspot.com/ > S.C. Perkins' Genealogy Page http://stevencperkins.com/genealogy.html > S.C. Perkins' Genealogy Blog http://scpgen.blogspot.com/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > GENEALOGY-DNA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message