engleski

Neolithic transition : reconstructing the human past using ancient and modern genomes

DNA variability pattern is an information source on the demographic history of populations, from migrations, expansions to colonisation events. There are two ways of analyzing DNA message in this capacity: a direct analysis of ancient remains and genome analysis of present-day populations. This work focuses on assessing a process of Neolithization in individual European regions through a literature synthesis on the subjects of paleogenetic studies and analyses of contemporary European genetic pool using uniparentally inherited markers. Results indicate that molecular genetic studies of modern European populations differ in the assessment of contribution of Near Eastern farmers to the modern European genetic variation. Contributions vary not only by region, but also by sex, resulting in sex-specific variation in distribution of different genetic markers. Y chromosome analyses of contemporary populations support several archaeological models of Neolithization specific for individual European regions. Thus is possible to distinguish the process of Neolithic diffusion in today’s Greece and the Aegean Sea area, as is with the initial Neolithic in the Balkans. Furthermore, model of leapfrog colonisation in the Mediterranean region and acculturation in the rest of Europe are also in line with various archaeological models of Neolithization. Mitochondrial DNA analyses of contemporary populations demonstrate a discontinuity in relation to the area of the Middle East and indicate models of Neolithization that include leapfrog colonisation, acculturation, and genetic exchange across the agricultural frontier and exclude a model of a large-scale demic diffusion. Ancient DNA analyses of Neolithic expansion into Europe indicate genetic discontinuities with contemporary populations.

Neolithic transition ; Neolithization ; human past ; ancient DNA ; modern genome

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