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Cited by 210Forensic and Genetic ResearchGenetic diversity and population structureLanguage and cultural evolution

The effect of the Neolithic expansion on European molecular diversity

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Currat, Mathias, Excoffier, Laurent·2005·Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
DOI 10.1098/rspb.2004.2999PMC PMC1602044
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Abstract

We performed extensive and realistic simulations of the colonization process of Europe by Neolithic farmers, as well as their potential admixture and competition with local Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. We find that minute amounts of gene flow between Palaeolithic and Neolithic populations should lead to a massive Palaeolithic contribution to the current gene pool of Europeans. This large Palaeolithic contribution is not expected under the demic diffusion (DD) model, which postulates that agriculture diffused over Europe by a massive migration of individuals from the Near East. However, genetic evidence in favour of this model mainly consisted in the observation of allele frequency clines over Europe, which are shown here to be equally probable under a pure DD or a pure acculturation model. The examination of the consequence of range expansions on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) diversity reveals that an ascertainment bias consisting of selecting SNPs with high frequencies will promote the observation of genetic clines (which are not expected for random SNPs) and will lead to multimodal mismatch distributions. We conclude that the different patterns of molecular diversity observed for Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA can be at least partly owing to an ascertainment bias when selecting Y chromosome SNPs for studying European populations.

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  • Range expansions occurred not only during the out-of-Africa expansion but also during other prehistoric periods.

    “In addition, range expansions occurred not only during the OOA expansion (7) but also during other prehistoric periods (31).”

    From Past human expansions shaped the spatial pattern of Neanderthal ancestry (2023) · cites this paper as [31]

  • Multiple population movements during recent human history could have contributed to shaping Neanderthal ancestry across time and space because distinct expanding populations can carry various levels of Neanderthal ancestry.

    “Therefore, multiple population movements during recent human history could have contributed to shaping NE ancestry across time and space because distinct expanding populations can carry various levels of NE ancestry (20, 31, 39).”

    From Past human expansions shaped the spatial pattern of Neanderthal ancestry (2023) · cites this paper as [31]

  • As hunter-gatherers spread over Europe, their Neanderthal introgression levels increased because of a combination of stochastic demographic and migratory processes related to gene dilution and gene surfing, which explain the spatial gradients of Neanderthal ancestry observed in hunter-gatherers.

    “According to the expansion hypothesis (19), as HGs spread over Europe, their NE introgression levels increased because of a combination of stochastic demographic and migratory processes related to gene dilution (20, 31, 39) and gene surfing (22, 23), which explain the spatial gradients of NE ancestry observed in HGs (Fig. 5).”

    From Past human expansions shaped the spatial pattern of Neanderthal ancestry (2023) · cites this paper as [31]

  • In Europe, both the early human expansion during the Paleolithic and the farming expansion during the Neolithic trace back to southwest Asia, where the lowest level of Neanderthal ancestry was estimated.

    “In Europe, both the early human expansion during the Paleolithic and the farming expansion during the Neolithic trace back to southwest Asia (31), where we estimated the lowest level of NE ancestry.”

    From Past human expansions shaped the spatial pattern of Neanderthal ancestry (2023) · cites this paper as [31]

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Authors
Currat, M., & Excoffier, L.
Affiliations
  • University of Geneva (CH)
  • University of Bern (CH)
Corresponding author
Currat, Mathias
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Publisher
The Royal Society
Published
2005-04
Volume
272
Issue
1564
Pages
679-688
ISSN
  • 0080-4649 (ISSN-L)
  • 0962-8452
  • 1471-2954
DOI
10.1098/rspb.2004.2999
PMC
PMC1602044
OpenAlex
W2168355684
Cited by
210
References
66
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 16
FWCI
11.73
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (acceptedVersion)
  • Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Forensic and Genetic Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
Keywords
Neolithic expansion, demic diffusion, Neolithic farmers, admixture, allele frequency clines, ascertainment bias, mismatch distribution, Y chromosome, mitochondrial DNA, molecular diversity, range expansion, acculturation model
MeSH terms
Computer Simulation, Demography, DNA, Mitochondrial, Europe, Gene Frequency, Genetics, Population, Humans, Models, Genetic, Genetic Variation, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Chromosomes, Human, Y, White People

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