Search results for "MITOCHONDRIAL"
showing 10 items of 919 documents
Maternal DNA lineages at the gate of Europe in the 10th century AD
2018
Given the paucity of archaeogenetic data available for medieval European populations in comparison to other historical periods, the genetic landscape of this age appears as a puzzle of dispersed, small, known pieces. In particular, Southeastern Europe has been scarcely investigated to date. In this paper, we report the study of mitochondrial DNA in 10th century AD human samples from Capidava necropolis, located in Dobruja (Southeastern Romania, Southeastern Europe). This geographical region is particularly interesting because of the extensive population flux following diverse migration routes, and the complex interactions between distinct population groups during the medieval period. We suc…
Higher physiopathogenicity byFasciola giganticathan by the genetically closeF. hepatica: experimental long-term follow-up of biochemical markers
2016
Background: Fascioliasis is caused by Fasciola hepatica and F. gigantica. The latter, always considered secondary in human infection, nowadays appears increasingly involved in Africa and Asia. Unfortunately, little is known about its pathogenicity, mainly due to difficulties in assessing the moment a patient first becomes infected and the differential diagnosis with F. hepatica. Methods: A long-term, 24-week, experimental study comparing F. hepatica and F. giganticawas made for the first time in the same animal model host, Guirra sheep. Serum biochemical parameters of liver damage, serum electrolytes, protein metabolism, plasma proteins, carbohydrate metabolism, hepatic lipid metabolism and…
Ancient goat genomes reveal mosaic domestication in the Fertile Crescent
2018
How humans got their goatsLittle is known regarding the location and mode of the early domestication of animals such as goats for husbandry. To investigate the history of the goat, Dalyet al.sequenced mitochondrial and nuclear sequences from ancient specimens ranging from hundreds to thousands of years in age. Multiple wild populations contributed to the origin of modern goats during the Neolithic. Over time, one mitochondrial type spread and became dominant worldwide. However, at the whole-genome level, modern goat populations are a mix of goats from different sources and provide evidence for a multilocus process of domestication in the Near East. Furthermore, the patterns described suppor…
Reconstructing the deep population history of Central and South America
2018
We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 49 individuals forming four parallel time transects in Belize, Brazil, the Central Andes, and the Southern Cone, each dating to at least ∼9,000 years ago. The common ancestral population radiated rapidly from just one of the two early branches that contributed to Native Americans today. We document two previously unappreciated streams of gene flow between North and South America. One affected the Central Andes by ∼4,200 years ago, while the other explains an affinity between the oldest North American genome associated with the Clovis culture and the oldest Central and South Americans from Chile, Brazil, and Belize. However, this was not the primary sou…
Early cave art and ancient DNA record the origin of European bison
2016
The two living species of bison (European and American) are among the few terrestrial megafauna to have survived the late Pleistocene extinctions. Despite the extensive bovid fossil record in Eurasia, the evolutionary history of the European bison (or wisent, Bison bonasus) before the Holocene (<11.7 thousand years ago (kya)) remains a mystery. We use complete ancient mitochondrial genomes and genome-wide nuclear DNA surveys to reveal that the wisent is the product of hybridization between the extinct steppe bison (Bison priscus) and ancestors of modern cattle (aurochs, Bos primigenius) before 120 kya, and contains up to 10% aurochs genomic ancestry. Although undetected within the fossil re…
Aedes albopictus diversity and relationships in south-western Europe and Brazil by rDNA/mtDNA and phenotypic analyses: ITS-2, a useful marker for spr…
2021
AbstractBackgroundAedes albopictusis a very invasive mosquito, which has recently colonized tropical and temperate regions worldwide. Of concern is its role in the spread of emerging or re-emerging mosquito-borne diseases.Ae. albopictusfrom south-western Europe and Brazil were studied to infer genetic and phenetic diversity at intra-individual, intra-population and inter-population levels, and to analyse its spread.MethodsGenotyping was made by rDNA 5.8S-ITS-2 and mtDNAcox1 sequencing to assess haplotype and nucleotide diversity, genetic distances and phylogenetic networks. Male and female phenotyping included combined landmark-and outlined-based geometric morphometrics of wing size and sha…
The maternal genetic make-up of the Iberian Peninsula between the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age
2017
Agriculture first reached the Iberian Peninsula around 5700 BCE. However, little is known about the genetic structure and changes of prehistoric populations in different geographic areas of Iberia. In our study, we focus on the maternal genetic makeup of the Neolithic (~ 5500–3000 BCE), Chalcolithic (~ 3000–2200 BCE) and Early Bronze Age (~ 2200–1500 BCE). We report ancient mitochondrial DNA results of 213 individuals (151 HVS-I sequences) from the northeast, central, southeast and southwest regions and thus on the largest archaeogenetic dataset from the Peninsula to date. Similar to other parts of Europe, we observe a discontinuity between hunter-gatherers and the first farmers of the Neol…
Neolithic animal domestication as seen from ancient DNA
2018
Abstract In recent years, archaeological, archaeozoological and population genetic studies have increasingly converged on a southwest Asian origin for the four Neolithic farm animals: cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. The power of ancient DNA studies lies in the possibility of tracking the genetic traces of major demographic processes, such as domestication itself and subsequent migration, at their spatiotemporal sources. In doing so, they are bypassing more recent events, which may have blurred ancient signals until the point of disappearance. Past ancient DNA studies have mostly relied on a single, powerful and – even for degraded ancient samples – easily accessible genetic marker: the mate…
Ethical Aspects of Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA Transfer
2016
Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) (cloning), as a reproductive or therapeutic method, and mitochondrial DNA transfer, as a method to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial diseases, are analyzed in this paper from a bioethics perspective. The licit purpose of being able to treat certain diseases, as in the case of SCNT, cannot justify, in any case, resorting to illicit means such as the manipulation, selection, and elimination of human embryos in the blastocyst phase, by using cell lines obtained from them. Crossing this line paves the way (as utilitarian ethics advocates) to assuming any cost in scientific experimentation so long as satisfactory results are obtained. With mitochondr…
Phylogeny of Syndermata (syn. Rotifera): Mitochondrial gene order verifies epizoic Seisonidea as sister to endoparasitic Acanthocephala within monoph…
2015
Abstract A monophyletic origin of endoparasitic thorny-headed worms (Acanthocephala) and wheel-animals (Rotifera) is widely accepted. However, the phylogeny inside the clade, be it called Syndermata or Rotifera, has lacked validation by mitochondrial (mt) data. Herein, we present the first mt genome of the key taxon Seison and report conflicting results of phylogenetic analyses: while mt sequence-based topologies showed monophyletic Lemniscea (Bdelloidea + Acanthocephala), gene order analyses supported monophyly of Pararotatoria (Seisonidea + Acanthocephala) and Hemirotifera (Bdelloidea + Pararotatoria). Sequence-based analyses obviously suffered from substitution saturation, compositional …