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Nature Research, Nature Communications, 1(6), 2015

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8152

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Large-scale recent expansion of European patrilineages shown by population resequencing

Journal article published in 2015 by Chiara Batini, Pille Hallast ORCID, Daniel Zadik, Delser Pm, Pierpaolo Maisano Delser, Andrea Benazzo, Silvia Ghirotto, Eduardo Arroyo-Pardo, Cavalleri Gl, Gianpiero L. Cavalleri, Peter de Knijff ORCID, Dupuy Bm, Berit Myhre Dupuy, Eriksen Ha, Heidi A. Eriksen and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

The proportion of Europeans descending from Neolithic farmers ∼ 10 thousand years ago (KYA) or Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers has been much debated. The male-specific region of the Y chromosome (MSY) has been widely applied to this question, but unbiased estimates of diversity and time depth have been lacking. Here we show that European patrilineages underwent a recent continent-wide expansion. Resequencing of 3.7 Mb of MSY DNA in 334 males, comprising 17 European and Middle Eastern populations, defines a phylogeny containing 5,996 single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Dating indicates that three major lineages (I1, R1a and R1b), accounting for 64% of our sample, have very recent coalescent times, ranging between 3.5 and 7.3 KYA. A continuous swathe of 13/17 populations share similar histories featuring a demographic expansion starting ∼ 2.1-4.2 KYA. Our results are compatible with ancient MSY DNA data, and contrast with data on mitochondrial DNA, indicating a widespread male-specific phenomenon that focuses interest on the social structure of Bronze Age Europe. ; Peer-reviewed ; Publisher Version