Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 15 December 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5806, pp. 1767 - 1770
DOI: 10.1126/science.1135566
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

The mtDNA Legacy of the Levantine Early Upper Palaeolithic in Africa

Anna Olivieri,1 Alessandro Achilli,1 Maria Pala,1 Vincenza Battaglia,1 Simona Fornarino,1 Nadia Al-Zahery,1,2 Rosaria Scozzari,3 Fulvio Cruciani,3 Doron M. Behar,4 Jean-Michel Dugoujon,5 Clotilde Coudray,5 A. Silvana Santachiara-Benerecetti,1 Ornella Semino,1 Hans-Jürgen Bandelt,6 Antonio Torroni1*

Sequencing of 81 entire human mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) belonging to haplogroups M1 and U6 reveals that these predominantly North African clades arose in southwestern Asia and moved together to Africa about 40,000 to 45,000 years ago. Their arrival temporally overlaps with the event(s) that led to the peopling of Europe by modern humans and was most likely the result of the same change in climate conditions that allowed humans to enter the Levant, opening the way to the colonization of both Europe and North Africa. Thus, the early Upper Palaeolithic population(s) carrying M1 and U6 did not return to Africa along the southern coastal route of the "out of Africa" exit, but from the Mediterranean area; and the North African Dabban and European Aurignacian industries derived from a common Levantine source.

1 Dipartimento di Genetica e Microbiologia, Università di Pavia, Via Ferrata 1, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
2 Department of Biotechnology, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Iraq.
3 diDipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Università "La Sapienza," Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
4 Molecular Medicine Laboratory, Rambam Health Care Campus, Efron 9 Street, Bat Galim, 31096 Haifa, Israel.
5 Centre d'Anthropologie, FRE 2960 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse III, 37, Allées Jules Guesde, 31073 Toulouse Cedex, France.
6 Department of Mathematics, University of Hamburg, Bundesstrasse 55, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: torroni{at}ipvgen.unipv.it

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Bayesian coalescent inference of major human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup expansions in Africa.
Q. D Atkinson, R. D Gray, and A. J Drummond (2009)
Proc R Soc B 276, 367-373
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Maternal traces of deep common ancestry and asymmetric gene flow between Pygmy hunter-gatherers and Bantu-speaking farmers.
L. Quintana-Murci, H. Quach, C. Harmant, F. Luca, B. Massonnet, E. Patin, L. Sica, P. Mouguiama-Daouda, D. Comas, S. Tzur, et al. (2008)
PNAS 105, 1596-1601
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
mtDNA Variation Predicts Population Size in Humans and Reveals a Major Southern Asian Chapter in Human Prehistory.
Q. D. Atkinson, R. D. Gray, and A. J. Drummond (2008)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 25, 468-474
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Quaternary science 2007: a 50-year retrospective.
M. Walker and J. Lowe (2007)
Journal of the Geological Society 164, 1073-1092
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Tracing Past Human Male Movements in Northern/Eastern Africa and Western Eurasia: New Clues from Y-Chromosomal Haplogroups E-M78 and J-M12.
F. Cruciani, R. La Fratta, B. Trombetta, P. Santolamazza, D. Sellitto, E. B. Colomb, J.-M. Dugoujon, F. Crivellaro, T. Benincasa, R. Pascone, et al. (2007)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 24, 1300-1311
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)