Mitochondrial genomes reveal an east to west cline of steppe ancestry in Corded Ware populations
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Date
2018
Authors
Juras, Anna
Chyleński, Maciej
Ehler, Edvard
Malmström, Helena
Żurkiewicz, Danuta
Włodarczak, Piotr
Wilk, Stanisław
Peška, Jaroslav
Fojtík, Pavel
Králík, Miroslav
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Abstract
From around 4,000 to 2,000 BC the forest-steppe north-western Pontic region was occupied by people who shared a nomadic lifestyle, pastoral economy and barrow burial rituals. It has been shown that these groups, especially those associated with the Yamnaya culture, played an important role in shaping the gene pool of Bronze Age Europeans, which extends into present-day patterns of genetic variation in Europe. Although the genetic impact of these migrations from the forest-steppe Pontic region into central Europe have previously been addressed in several studies, the contribution of mitochondrial lineages to the people associated with the Corded Ware culture in the eastern part of the North European Plain remains contentious. In this study, we present mitochondrial genomes from 23 Late Eneolithic and Bronze Age individuals, including representatives of the north-western Pontic region and the Corded Ware culture from the eastern part of the North European Plain. We identified, for the first time in ancient populations, the rare mitochondrial haplogroup X4 in two Bronze Age Catacomb culture-associated individuals. Genetic similarity analyses show close maternal genetic affinities between populations associated with both eastern and Baltic Corded Ware culture, and the Yamnaya horizon, in contrast to larger genetic differentiation between populations associated with western Corded Ware culture and the Yamnaya horizon. This indicates that females with steppe ancestry contributed to the formation of populations associated with the eastern Corded Ware culture while more local people, likely of Neolithic farmer ancestry, contributed to the formation of populations associated with western Corded Ware culture.
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Keywords
archeology, mitochondrial genomes, Corded Ware populations, nomadic lifestyle, Corded Ware culture, Bronze Age Europeans, Yamnaya horizon, article
Citation
Mitochondrial genomes reveal an east to west cline of steppe ancestry in Corded Ware populations [electronic resource] / Juras A., Chyleński M., Ehler E., Malmström H., Żurkiewicz D., Włodarczak P., Wilk S., Peška J., Fojtík P., Králík M., Libera J., Bagińska J., Tunia K., Klochko V. I., Dabert M., Jakobsson M., Kośko A. // Scientific Reports. - 2018. - Vol. 8, Issue 1. - Article number 11603.