Population genomics of post-glacial western Eurasia
Morten E. Allentoft, Martin Sikora, Alba Refoyo-Martínez, Evan K. Irving-Pease, Anders Fischer, William Barrie, Andrés Ingason, Jesper Stenderup, Karl-Göran Sjögren, Alice Pearson, Bárbara Sousa da Mota, Bettina Schulz Paulsson, Alma Halgren, Ruairidh Macleod, Marie Louise Schjellerup Jørkov, Fabrice Demeter, Lasse Sørensen, Poul Otto Nielsen, Rasmus Amund Henriksen, Tharsika Vimala, Hugh McColl, Ashot Margaryan, Melissa Ilardo, Andrew H. Vaughn, Morten Fischer Mortensen, Anne Birgitte Nielsen, Mikkel Ulfeldt Hede, Niels Nørkjær Johannsen, Peter Rasmussen, Lasse Vinner, Gabriel Renaud, Aaron J. Stern, Theis Zetner Trolle Jensen, Gabriele Scorrano, Hannes Schroeder, Per Lysdahl, Abigail Ramsøe, Andrey Skorobogatov, Andrew J. Schork, Anders Rosengren, Anthony Ruter, Alan K. Outram, Aleksey A. Timoshenko, Alexandra Buzhilova, Alfredo Coppa, А. В. Зубова, Ana María Silva, Anders J. Hansen, Andrey Gromov, Andrey Logvin, Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen, Bjarne Henning Nielsen, Borja González-Rabanal, Carles Lalueza‐Fox, Catriona J. McKenzie, Charleen Gaunitz, Concepción Blasco, Corina Liesau von Lettow‐Vorbeck, Cristina Martínez‐Labarga, Dmitri V. Pozdnyakov, David Cuenca-Solana, David Lordkipanidze, Dmitri En’shin, Domingo C. Salazar‐García, T. Douglas Price, Dušan Borić, Elena Kostyleva, Elizaveta Veselovskaya, Emma Usmanova, Enrico Cappellini, Erik Brinch Petersen, Esben Kannegaard, Francesca Radina, Fulya Eylem Yediay, Henri Duday, Igor Gutiérrez-Zugasti, I. Merts, Inna Potekhina, Irinа Shevnina, Isin Altinkaya, Jean Guilaine, Jesper Hansen, J. Emili Aura Tortosa, Joào Zilhão, Jorge R. Vega, Kristoffer Buck Pedersen, Krzysztof Tunia, Lei Zhao, Liudmila N. Mylnikova, Lars Larsson, Laure Metz, Levon Yepiskoposyan, Lisbeth Pedersen, Lucia Sarti, Ludovic Orlando, Ludovic Slimak, Lutz Klassen, Malou Blank, Manuel R. González Morales, Mara Silvestrini
Abstract
. Here, to investigate the cross-continental effects of these migrations, we shotgun-sequenced 317 genomes-mainly from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods-from across northern and western Eurasia. These were imputed alongside published data to obtain diploid genotypes from more than 1,600 ancient humans. Our analyses revealed a 'great divide' genomic boundary extending from the Black Sea to the Baltic. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were highly genetically differentiated east and west of this zone, and the effect of the neolithization was equally disparate. Large-scale ancestry shifts occurred in the west as farming was introduced, including near-total replacement of hunter-gatherers in many areas, whereas no substantial ancestry shifts happened east of the zone during the same period. Similarly, relatedness decreased in the west from the Neolithic transition onwards, whereas, east of the Urals, relatedness remained high until around 4,000 BP, consistent with the persistence of localized groups of hunter-gatherers. The boundary dissolved when Yamnaya-related ancestry spread across western Eurasia around 5,000 BP, resulting in a second major turnover that reached most parts of Europe within a 1,000-year span. The genetic origin and fate of the Yamnaya have remained elusive, but we show that hunter-gatherers from the Middle Don region contributed ancestry to them. Yamnaya groups later admixed with individuals associated with the Globular Amphora culture before expanding into Europe. Similar turnovers occurred in western Siberia, where we report new genomic data from a 'Neolithic steppe' cline spanning the Siberian forest steppe to Lake Baikal. These prehistoric migrations had profound and lasting effects on the genetic diversity of Eurasian populations.