New paper on HV4a1a

[Jean M]

Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Anna Olivieri, Doron M. Behar, Alessandro Achilli, Antonio Torroni, Antonio Salas, Genetic continuity in the Franco-Cantabrian region: new clues from a mtDNA lineage, PLoS ONE 7(3): e32851.

The Late Glacial Maximum (LGM), ~20 thousand years ago (kya), is thought to have forced the people inhabiting vast areas of northern and central Europe to retreat to southern regions characterized by milder climatic conditions. Archaeological records indicate that Franco-Cantabria might have been the major source for the re-peopling of Europe at the beginning of the Holocene (11.5 kya). However, genetic evidence is still scarce and has been the focus of an intense debate.

Based on a survey of more than 345,000 partial control region sequences and the analysis of 53 mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genomes, we identified an mtDNA lineage, HV4a1a, which most likely arose in the Franco-Cantabrian area about 5.4 kya and remained confined to northern Iberia.

Fascinating map tracking HV4 from Northern Ukraine to HV4a1 in the Alps and from there to HV4a1a in SW France.

[Kopfjäger]

Thanks for this, Jean. Being HV4a1 myself, it's a truly nice map!

[Rathna]

Fascinating map tracking HV4 from Northern Ukraine to HV4a1 in the Alps and from there to HV4a1a in SW France.

The paper isn't new. I have written a lot about this haplogroup (like Maliclavelli, Gioiello etc.) and about this paper above all on Worldfamilies, already when the most part of scholars thought that this hg. came from Middle East. I have also criticized this paper on Worldfamilies. About the origin in Ukraine... also Malyarchuk et alii has demonstrated that there has been before a migration from the Alpine zone, i.e. Italy, to East, and hg. HV is old of more than 30,000 years in Italy (see the last paper of Boattini et al.).

[Jean M]

The paper isn't new.

This paper was published March 19, 2012. I posted about it on 08-08-2012. The post today by Kopfjäger bumped up this old thread.

HV is old of more than 30,000 years in Italy

It seems possible that HV* reached Europe in the Palaeolithic. CRS in HVR1, 7025 AluI, 00073A, 11719G, 12308A was found in human remains in Paglicci Cave, Foggia (Caramelli 2008) which is wildly unlikely to be mtDNA H, and so could be HV or R0. There are one or two other similar results. If so, HV does not seem to have survived into the Mesolithic in Europe generally, for it only appears again in the Neolithic, along with its offspring H and V. Of course we do not yet have much published aDNA from Mesolithic Italy, so we don't have the full picture.

The date calculated by Boattini et al 2013 could be perfectly accurate for HV (though Behar 2012 dates it to 21,905 years ago), but that does not mean that HV has been in Italy continuously from 31,600 or 21,905 years ago and that Italy is the fount of all its subclades. That is the problem with dating haplogroups. It only tells you the date of the haplogroup, not where it has been for all that time.

Specifically HV4a1 has a sister in the Near East, HV4a2, which makes it likely that HV4a arose there. One branch of HV4a appears to have entered Eastern Europe, where HV4a1 arose. Tracking its movements through modern populations we reach Italy and then southwestern France, where HV4a1a appeared at an estimated 3400 BC.

Behar 2012 calculates the dates of HV4 and its offspring HV4a as the same: 15,823 years ago. HV4a1 he dates to 9723 years ago.

[Rathna]

Specifically HV4a1 has a sister in the Near East, HV4a2, which makes it likely that HV4a arose there.

I think having answered this question on my "Rathna's assessment of genetic materials" ## 296-300. I have no guilt if someone always puts my posts there.