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Cited by 12Forensic and Genetic ResearchPleistocene-Era Hominins and ArchaeologyGenetic diversity and population structure

Projecting Ancient Ancestry in Modern-Day Arabians and Iranians: A Key Role of the Past Exposed Arabo-Persian Gulf on Human Migrations

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Ferreira, Joana C, Alshamali, Farida, Montinaro, Francesco, Cavadas, Bruno, Torroni, Antonio, Pereira, Luisa, Raveane, Alessandro, Fernandes, Veronica·2021·Genome Biology and Evolution
DOI 10.1093/gbe/evab194PMC PMC8435661

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Abstract

The Arabian Peninsula is strategic for investigations centered on the early structuring of modern humans in the wake of the out-of-Africa migration. Despite its poor climatic conditions for the recovery of ancient human DNA evidence, the availability of both genomic data from neighboring ancient specimens and informative statistical tools allow modeling the ancestry of local modern populations. We applied this approach to a data set of 741,000 variants screened in 291 Arabians and 78 Iranians, and obtained insightful evidence. The west-east axis was a strong forcer of population structure in the Peninsula, and, more importantly, there were clear continuums throughout time linking western Arabia with the Levant, and eastern Arabia with Iran and the Caucasus. Eastern Arabians also displayed the highest levels of the basal Eurasian lineage of all tested modern-day populations, a signal that was maintained even after correcting for a possible bias due to a recent sub-Saharan African input in their genomes. Not surprisingly, eastern Arabians were also the ones with highest similarity with Iberomaurusians, who were, so far, the best proxy for the basal Eurasians amongst the known ancient specimens. The basal Eurasian lineage is the signature of ancient non-Africans who diverged from the common European-eastern Asian pool before 50,000 years ago, prior to the later interbred with Neanderthals. Our results appear to indicate that the exposed basin of the Arabo-Persian Gulf was the possible home of basal Eurasians, a scenario to be further investigated by searching ancient Arabian human specimens.

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  • The original location of the basal Eurasian lineage could have been the Arabian Peninsula, close to the source of the out-of-Africa expansion and therefore compatible with the range expansion hypothesis.

    “It has been suggested that its original location could have been the Arabian Peninsula (52), which is close to the source of the OOA expansion and therefore compatible with the range expansion hypothesis.”

    From Past human expansions shaped the spatial pattern of Neanderthal ancestry (2023) · cites this paper as [52]

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Cited by

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Authors
Ferreira, J. C., Alshamali, F., Montinaro, F., Cavadas, B., Torroni, A., Pereira, L., Raveane, A., & Fernandes, V.
Affiliations
  • i3S—Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Portugal
  • Department of Forensic Sciences and Criminology, Dubai Police General Headquarters, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  • Estonian Biocentre (EE)
  • Universidade do Porto (PT)
  • University of Pavia (IT)
ORCID
Venue
Genome Biology and Evolution
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2021-09-01
Volume
13
Issue
9
ISSN
1759-6653 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1093/gbe/evab194
PMC
PMC8435661
OpenAlex
W3198321414
Cited by
12
References
9
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4
FWCI
1.13
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Genome Biology and Evolution (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nd)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • CINECA IRIS Institutional Research Information System (University of Bari Aldo Moro) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Dipartimenti di Eccellenza (2018–2022)
  • Ministero della Salute (2018-)
  • Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca (20182022)
  • Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274, SFRH/BPD/114927/2016)
  • Università degli Studi di Pavia (2018-2022)
  • Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (2018-2022)
  • Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (01-0145, COMPETE, POCI-01-0145, POCI- 01-0145-FEDER-007274, SFRH/BPD/114927/2016, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-, COMPETE_2020, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016609, POCI-01-)
  • European Regional Development Fund (COMPETE, POCI-01, 01-0145, COMPETE2020, 007274, POCI-01-0145, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274, POCI-01-0145- FEDER)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Forensic and Genetic Research
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
Keywords
Iranians, human migration, out-of-Africa migration, Iberomaurusian, Levant, Caucasus, population structure, ancient human DNA
MeSH terms
DNA, Ancient, Animals, Genetics, Population, Humans, Iran, Genome, Human, Indian Ocean, Neanderthals, Human Migration

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