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Edited* by Yuet Wai Kan, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, and approved May 9, 2014 (received for review November 7, 2013)
Significance
The question of colonization of Europe by Neolithic people of the Near East and their contribution to the farming economy of Europe has been addressed with extensive archaeological studies and many genetic investigations of extant European and Near Eastern populations. Here, we use DNA polymorphisms of extant populations to investigate the patterns of gene flow from the Near East to Europe. Our data support the hypothesis that Near Eastern migrants reached Europe from Anatolia. A maritime route and island hopping was mainly used by these Near Eastern migrants to reach Southern Europe.
Abstract
The Neolithic populations, which colonized Europe approximately 9,000 y ago, presumably migrated from Near East to Anatolia and from there to Central Europe through Thrace and the Balkans. An alternative route would have been island hopping across the Southern European coast. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed genome-wide DNA polymorphisms on populations bordering the Mediterranean coast and from Anatolia and mainland Europe. We observe a striking structure correlating genes with geography around the Mediterranean Sea with characteristic east to west clines of gene flow. Using population network analysis, we also find that the gene flow from Anatolia to Europe was through Dodecanese, Crete, and the Southern European coast, compatible with the hypothesis that a maritime coastal route was mainly used for the migration of Neolithic farmers to Europe.
Footnotes
↵1P.P. and P.D. contributed equally to this work.
- ↵2To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gstam{at}u.washington.edu.
Author contributions: G.S. designed research; P.P., P.D., E.Y., A.R., K.K., M.M., M.C.R., S.P., A.A., and K.K.K. performed research; E.Y., A.R., K.K., M.M., M.C.R., S.P., and A.A. performed population studies; K.K.K. contributed data; P.P., P.D., F.T., and S.S.P. analyzed data; and P.P., P.D., J.A.S., and G.S. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
↵*This Direct Submission article had a prearranged editor.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1320811111/-/DCSupplemental.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
Maritime route of colonization of Europe
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