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Genes shed light on spread of agriculture in stone age europe by 123wert sdfsf
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Genes shed light on spread of agriculture in stone age europe |
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One of the most debated developments in human history is thetransition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies. Thisweek's edition of Science presents the genetic findings of aSwedish-Danish research team, which show that agriculture spread toNorthern Europe via migration from Southern Europe. "We have been able to show that the genetic variation of today'sEuropeans was strongly affected by immigrant Stone Age farmers,though a number of hunter-gatherer genes remain," says AssistantProfessor Anders Gotherstrom of the Evolutionary Biology Centre,who, along with Assistant Professor Mattias Jakobsson, co-led thestudy, a collaboration with Stockholm University and the Universityof Copenhagen. "What is interesting and surprising is that Stone Age farmers andhunter-gatherers from the same time had entirely different geneticbackgrounds and lived side by side for more than a thousand years,to finally interbreed," Mattias Jakobsson says.
Agriculture developed in the Middle East about 11,000 years ago andby about 5,000 years ago had reached most of Continental Europe.How the spread of agriculture progressed and how it affected thepeople living in Europe have been debated for almost 100 years. Earlier studies were largely based on small amounts of genetic dataand were therefore unable to provide univocal answers. Wasagriculture an idea that spread across Europe or a technique that agroup of migrants took with them to different regions of thecontinent? "Many attempts, including using genetics, have been made to come toterms with the problem since the significance of the spread ofagriculture was established almost 100 years ago," AndersGotherstrom says. "Our success in carrying out this study depended on access to goodmaterial, modern laboratory methods and a high level of analyticalexpertise." The study in question entailed the research team using advanced DNAtechniques to characterise almost 250 million base pairs from fourskeletons of humans who lived in Sweden during the Stone Age, 5,000years ago. Just ensuring that the DNA obtained from archaeologicalmaterial is truly old and uncontaminated by modern DNA requires theuse of advanced molecular and statistical methods.
The study involved thousands of genetic markers from the four StoneAge individuals, of which three were hunter-gatherers and one wasfrom an agricultural culture. All of the archaeological data showsthat the Stone Age farmer was representative of his time and groupand was born and raised near the place of his burial. Theresearchers compared their findings with a large amount of geneticdata from living individuals. "The Stone Age farmer's genetic profile matched that of peoplecurrently living in the vicinity of the Mediterranean, on Cyprus,for example," says Pontus Skoglund, a doctoral student whodeveloped new analytical methods used in the study. "The threehunter-gatherers from the same time most resembled NorthernEuropeans, without exactly matching any particular group." Accordingly, the study strongly supports the thesis that theagricultural revolution was driven by people who migrated fromSouthern Europe.
That they lived side by side with thehunter-gatherers for many generations, to eventually interbreed,explains the patterns of genetic variation that characterisepresent-day Europeans. "The process appears in the end to have had the result that nobodytoday has the same genetic profile as the originalhunter-gatherers, although they continue to be represented in thegenetic heritage of today's Europeans," Pontus Skoglund says. Jan Stora, researcher at Stockholm University, says the results areextremely exciting for archaeology in general and research into theStone Age in particular. "Archaeology has become a stimulating interdisciplinary field. Wehave obtained new, concrete biological data about Stone Age peoplethat provides scope for discussions about origins, mobility andsocial networks pertaining to a period that has lately been thefocus of lively debate.
Scientific DNA studies have broadened thebasis for engaging discussions within archaeology in recent years,"Jan Stora says. I am an expert from Industrial Supplies, usually analyzes all kind of industries situation, such as vegetable dye hair , vaseline body lotion.
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