DISCUSSION THREAD FOR "Genetic Genealogy and Ancient DNA in the News"

[Humanist]

Please use this thread to discuss the studies/news articles posted in the Genetic Genealogy and Ancient DNA in the News thread. Thank you.

[Jon]

Anyone see this? I wonder if any DNA could be extracted...?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...years-ago.html

[rozenfeld]

So, when the next batch of aDNA will be released? Does anyone have some information? It would be good to see data from unrepresented regions, like Balkans, Ukraine or East Asia/.

[Anabasis]

The Demographic Development of the First Farmers in Anatolia

The causes, effects, and mechanisms of the transition from foraging to farming in western Eurasia are key issues in understanding the development of our species, especially in understanding the development of larger, more dense, and more socially complex populations. Over the past decade, archaeogenetic studies have largely focused on processes that drove the spread of farming practices, particularly the introduction of farming and sedentism into Europe [2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. However, the demographic aspects of the transformation of forager communities in Southwest Asia into communities practicing substantial-scale mixed farming and the full extent of the role of Anatolian populations in the spread of farming into Europe have remained unclear. Here, we investigate human remains excavated from two different Neolithic settlements in central Anatolia, Boncuklu and Tepecik-Çiftlik, between circa (ca.) 8300 and 5800 calibrated (cal) BC to explore the demographic processes during the earliest (Aceramic) phase of the Neolithic transition, as well as the later Pottery Neolithic period in Anatolia.

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/...822(16)30850-8

[Gravetto-Danubian]

The Demographic Development of the First Farmers in Anatolia



http://www.cell.com/current-biology/...822(16)30850-8

Excellent
It seems they did full sequencing but did not generate Y SNP reads ?
Importantly, they've got a pre-Ceramic site -Bonkoclu c. 8000 BC- hypothesised to derive from 'native' Anatolian foragers. It showed low diversity c.f. later Neolithic sites; suggestive of inflow from southeast (?Levant). MtDNA wise, it had 2 N1a, K1a and U3.
It shows high ROH, on par with WHG (!) confirming the idea that it might have been an isolated south Anatolian forager community "going Neo". On PCA it plots closer to neolithic europeans than (later) Barcin, which is a much further west, again suggesting extraneous gene flow after 7600 BC into Anatolia
I haven't looked at formal tests yet and Suppl.

[parasar]

Excellent

It shows high ROH, on par with WHG (!) confirming the idea that it might have been an isolated south Anatolian forager community "going Neo". On PCA it plots closer to neolithic europeans than (later) Barcin, which is a much further west, again suggesting extraneous gene flow after 7600 BC into Anatolia
I haven't looked at formal tests yet and Suppl.

ROH: Yes quite different from Iran and Stuttgart but much like WHG and CHG.

[Hando]

Excellent
It seems they did full sequencing but did not generate Y SNP reads ?
Importantly, they've got a pre-Ceramic site -Bonkoclu c. 8000 BC- hypothesised to derive from 'native' Anatolian foragers. It showed low diversity c.f. later Neolithic sites; suggestive of inflow from southeast (?Levant). MtDNA wise, it had 2 N1a, K1a and U3.
It shows high ROH, on par with WHG (!) confirming the idea that it might have been an isolated south Anatolian forager community "going Neo". On PCA it plots closer to neolithic europeans than (later) Barcin, which is a much further west, again suggesting extraneous gene flow after 7600 BC into Anatolia
I haven't looked at formal tests yet and Suppl.

I don't get it. Bonkoclu had Levant geneflow and "plots closer to Neo Europeans" than Barcin (which was WHG) which suggests "extraneous gene flow after 7600 BC into Anatolia", but yet it's an "isolated Anatolian forager community" and is "on par with WHG"? It seems contradictory. Barcin had WHG. So how can Bonkoclu be much like WHG or CHG due to it's isolation, yet still have Levantine gene flow from after 7,600BC and be closer to Neo Europeans.

[Gravetto-Danubian]

I don't get it. Bonkoclu had Levant geneflow and "plots closer to Neo Europeans" than Barcin (which was WHG) which suggests "extraneous gene flow after 7600 BC into Anatolia", but yet it's an "isolated Anatolian forager community" and is "on par with WHG"? It seems contradictory. Barcin had WHG. So how can Bonkoclu be much like WHG or CHG due to it's isolation, yet still have Levantine gene flow from after 7,600BC and be closer to Neo Europeans.

Sure
Bonk. is the earliest site sampled, it's in south central Anatolia. It's from a period called "pre-Ceramic", a transitional period between hunter gatherers and True farmers.
The data suggests that it was more inclined toward European HG (WHG) than later samples from Anatolia, which even from further west (Barcin) cluster closer to the levant. This means that sometime after 8000 BC people moved into Anatolia from the levant, or there was admixing with Levantine farmers.
But some more formal tests will clarify everything

[Hando]

Sure
Bonk. is the earliest site sampled, it's in south central Anatolia. It's from a period called "pre-Ceramic", a transitional period between hunter gatherers and True farmers.
The data suggests that it was more inclined toward European HG (WHG) than later samples from Anatolia, which even from further west (Barcin) cluster closer to the levant. This means that sometime after 8000 BC people moved into Anatolia from the levant, or there was admixing with Levantine farmers.
But some more formal tests will clarify everything

Oh I see. Barcin was more Levantine affiliated. Not more WHG affiliated. My mistake. This was due to admixture between 'native' Anatolian Hunter turned farmer genes admixed with Levantine farmer genes that possibly intruded into Anatolia after 8,000BC. Thanks!

[parasar]

Oh I see. Barcin was more Levantine affiliated. Not more WHG affiliated. My mistake. This was due to admixture between 'native' Anatolian Hunter turned farmer genes admixed with Levantine farmer genes that possibly intruded into Anatolia after 8,000BC. Thanks!

It is more likely that the Levant had an influx from Anatolia than the other way around.
It is the Levant that changed over the Natufian - PPNB/PPNC period, and then again in the Bronze age.
The multiway admixture really picked up in the Chalcolithic.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...ture19310.html