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Ancient genomes reveal structural shifts after the arrival of Steppe-related ancestry in the Italian Peninsula

Saupe, Tina; Montinaro, Francesco; Scaggion, Cinzia; Carrara, Nicola; Kivisild, Toomas; D’Atanasio, Eugenia; Hui, Ruoyun; Solnik, Anu; Lebrasseur, Ophélie; Larson, Greger; Alessandri, Luca; Arienzo, Ilenia; De Angelis, Flavio; Rolfo, Mario Federico; Skeates, Robin; Silvestri, Letizia; Beckett, Jessica; Talamo, Sahra; Dolfini, Andrea; Miari, Monica; Metspalu, Mait; Benazzi, Stefano; Capelli, Cristian; Pagani, Luca; Scheib, Christiana L.

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Authors

Tina Saupe

Francesco Montinaro

Cinzia Scaggion

Nicola Carrara

Toomas Kivisild

Eugenia D’Atanasio

Ruoyun Hui

Anu Solnik

Ophélie Lebrasseur

Greger Larson

Luca Alessandri

Ilenia Arienzo

Flavio De Angelis

Mario Federico Rolfo

Letizia Silvestri

Jessica Beckett

Sahra Talamo

Andrea Dolfini

Monica Miari

Mait Metspalu

Stefano Benazzi

Cristian Capelli

Luca Pagani

Christiana L. Scheib



Abstract

Across Europe, the genetics of the Chalcolithic/Bronze Age transition is increasingly characterized in terms of an influx of Steppe-related ancestry. The effect of this major shift on the genetic structure of populations in the Italian Peninsula remains underexplored. Here, genome-wide shotgun data for 22 individuals from commingled cave and single burials in Northeastern and Central Italy dated between 3200 and 1500 BCE provide the first genomic characterization of Bronze Age individuals (n = 8; 0.001–1.2× coverage) from the central Italian Peninsula, filling a gap in the literature between 1950 and 1500 BCE. Our study confirms a diversity of ancestry components during the Chalcolithic and the arrival of Steppe-related ancestry in the central Italian Peninsula as early as 1600 BCE, with this ancestry component increasing through time. We detect close patrilineal kinship in the burial patterns of Chalcolithic commingled cave burials and a shift away from this in the Bronze Age (2200–900 BCE) along with lowered runs of homozygosity, which may reflect larger changes in population structure. Finally, we find no evidence that the arrival of Steppe-related ancestry in Central Italy directly led to changes in frequency of 115 phenotypes present in the dataset, rather that the post-Roman Imperial period had a stronger influence, particularly on the frequency of variants associated with protection against Hansen’s disease (leprosy). Our study provides a closer look at local dynamics of demography and phenotypic shifts as they occurred as part of a broader phenomenon of widespread admixture during the Chalcolithic/Bronze Age transition.

Citation

Saupe, T., Montinaro, F., Scaggion, C., Carrara, N., Kivisild, T., D’Atanasio, E., …Scheib, C. L. (2021). Ancient genomes reveal structural shifts after the arrival of Steppe-related ancestry in the Italian Peninsula. Current Biology, 31(12), 2576-2591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.04.022

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 9, 2021
Online Publication Date May 10, 2021
Publication Date 2021-06
Deposit Date Sep 1, 2021
Publicly Available Date Sep 1, 2021
Journal Current Biology
Print ISSN 0960-9822
Publisher Cell Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 31
Issue 12
Pages 2576-2591
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.04.022

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.





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