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An international team of researchers has sequenced the first complete genome of an Iberian farmer, which is also the first ancient genome from the entire Mediterranean area. This new genome allows to know the distinctive genetic changes of Neolithic migration in Southern Europe which led to the abandonment of the hunter-gatherer way of life.
The study is led by the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain), in collaboration with the Centre for GeoGenetics in Denmark. The results are published in the Molecular Biology and Evolution journal.
The first farmers entering Europe about 8,000 years ago coming from the Near East spread through the continent following two different routes: one to Central Europe via the Danube, and the other towards the Iberian peninsula following the Mediterranean coast.
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So far, only genomic data of various individuals belonging to the inland route found in Hungary and Germany were available, but the complete genomes of the Mediterranean route were lacked. This is partly due to the climatic conditions in Southern Europe, which hinder the conservation of genetic material.
Thanks to this new genome, researchers have been able to determine that farmers from the Mediterranean route and the inland route are very homogeneous and clearly derive from a common ancestral population that, most likely, is that of the first farmers who entered Europe through Anatolia.
Read full, original post: Ancient Genome Of Iberian Farmer Sequenced
