Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans.

Nature
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

We sequenced the genomes of a ∼7,000-year-old farmer from Germany and eight ∼8,000-year-old hunter-gatherers from Luxembourg and Sweden. We analysed these and other ancient genomes with 2,345 contemporary humans to show that most present-day Europeans derive from at least three highly differentiated populations: west European hunter-gatherers, who contributed ancestry to all Europeans but not to Near Easterners; ancient north Eurasians related to Upper Palaeolithic Siberians, who contributed to both Europeans and Near Easterners; and early European farmers, who were mainly of Near Eastern origin but also harboured west European hunter-gatherer related ancestry. We model these populations' deep relationships and show that early European farmers had ∼44% ancestry from a 'basal Eurasian' population that split before the diversification of other non-African lineages.

Year of Publication
2014
Journal
Nature
Volume
513
Issue
7518
Pages
409-13
Date Published
2014 Sep 18
ISSN
1476-4687
URL
DOI
10.1038/nature13673
PubMed ID
25230663
PubMed Central ID
PMC4170574
Links
Grant list
HHSN26120080001E / PHS HHS / United States
8DP1ES022577-04 / DP / NCCDPHP CDC HHS / United States
R01 GM100233 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States
R01 GM040282 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States
R01 HG006399 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
HG002385 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
Intramural NIH HHS / United States
HG004120 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
GM100233 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States
Howard Hughes Medical Institute / United States
R01 HG002385 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
GM40282 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States
P01 HG004120 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
DP1 ES022577 / ES / NIEHS NIH HHS / United States