Unmasking AIT

[Husky]

Related to the news article in the previous post, which mentioned dailymail as having an item on the subject.



Post 2/n



1. dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3088004/The-three-forefathers-Europe-Two-thirds-modern-European-men-descended-just-trio-Bronze-Age-leaders.html

The forefathers of Europe: Two thirds of modern European men descend from just THREE Bronze Age leaders



Scientists analysed the DNA of 334 modern European men

They found distinct paternal families originating 3,500 to 7,300 years ago

Mutations in the DNA suggest these families sprung from just three men

Their descendants spread across Europe around 2,000 to 4,000 years ago (i.e. spread at 2000 BCE max)



By Richard Gray for MailOnline



Published: 15:45 GMT, 19 May 2015 | Updated: 17:32 GMT, 19 May 2015





More than 60 per cent of males in modern-day Europe descend from Bronze Age leaders.



Genetic researchers estimate that three families in particular, which originated around 5,000 years ago, rapidly expanded across the continent.



And the study suggests that the spread of modern populations across Europe occurred much later than had originally been thought.



[img caption] The researchers found three distinct recent mutations that occurred in 63% of the men tested - I1, R1a and R1b - as shown in the diagram (a) above. The map marked (b ) shows the populations the scientists tested and the proportion of their DNA that is made up from each of the mutations shown in the diagram marked a



Rather than occurring during the Palaeolithic period as hunter-gatherers moved across the continent, it appears that most modern populations appear to have settled in Europe after the spread of farming during the Neolithic.



Professor Mark Jobling, a geneticist at the University of Leicester who led the research, said it was likely the forefathers of the three main paternal lineages detected were powerful Early Bronze Age tribe leaders.



He said: 'The population expansion falls within the Bronze Age, which involved changes in burial practices, the spread of horse-riding and developments in weaponry.



'Dominant males linked with these cultures could be responsible for the Y chromosome patterns we see today.'



The researchers, whose work is published in the journal Nature Communications, analysed the DNA sequences from the Y chromosomes of 334 men from 17 populations across Europe and the Middle East.



These included men from England, Bavaria, Orkney, Turkey, Greece, Norway, and Hungary.



They searched for mutations on the Y chromosome that are only carried by men, and so can be used to trace paternal lines through families.



By comparing the DNA from each of the populations they were able to trace key mutations in the genomes and work out when they may have occurred.



They found one mutation appears to have originated around 4,750 to 7,340 years ago and is prevalent in Norwegian and Orkadian populations.



Another mutation seems to have occurred between 3,700 and 6,500 years ago and has spread throughout Spain, Italy, France, England and Ireland.



A third mutation seems to have occurred in a man who lived between 3,470 and 5,070 years ago and is prominent in the Sami in Lapland, Norwegian, Danish, Frisia populations in the Netherlands, but can also be found in France, Hungary, Serbia and Bavaria.

(Oooh missed this last time: no Greece. Well these news reports mean noting if they can say nothing about Greece.)



Together, the scientists estimate from their findings, that these three paternal lines account for 63 per cent of the European men currently living.



In 2013 there were approximately 742.5 million people living in Europe, and if this had an equal gender split, would leave 371.25 million males.



Two thirds of this works out at around 233 million people being descendants of this trio - however, this is an estimate due to the fact it is not known how many of these people originated in Europe.



While it is unclear exactly who the men were that first fathered these paternal lines, it is likely that they were influential or powerful individuals.



[img caption] The pie-charts show the frequencies of Y-chromosome groups across regions. One mutation was found to be prevalent in Norwegian and Orkadian populations. Another mutation spread throughSpain, Italy, France, England and Ireland, and a third is prominent in the Netherlands, France, Hungary, Serbia and Bavaria



[img caption] Stonehenge (above) is thought to have been built by Neolithic inhabitants of Britain but the new research suggests they were largely replaced by the descendants of Bronze Age leaders who spread through Europe

(Red bit relevant for later.)



This is because people in positions of power tend to travel more widely and father far more children than their inferiors.



Recent research suggested that 16 million men across the world could be related to Genghis Khan, the Mongol leader who died in 1227.



The study traced a cluster of extremely similar Y chromosome DNA back to a single ancestor who lived in Mongolia around 800 years ago.



The Mongolian warlord is thought to have been the only man with the opportunity to father enough children for the genes to have spread.



[img caption] Genghis Khan is thought to have fathered hundreds of children as his armies conquered much of Asia while his sons also continued to spread his Y-chromosome around the world as they expanded the Mongol empire



Dr Chiara Batini a geneticist at the University of Leicester who was co-authored the Bronze Age study, said further research could help scientists and historians understand what led to the spread of the three Bronze Age families across Europe.



She said: 'Given the cultural complexity of the Bronze Age, it's difficult to link a particular event to the population growth that we infer.



'But Y-chromosome DNA sequences from skeletal remains are becoming available, and this will help us to understand what happened, and when.'



She added that other research has suggested some of the lineages appear to have originally migrated from the steppe near to the Black Sea.

(But the steppe region and Baltics too have been left out in this study: the maps in the images at the dailymail article show that Ukraine/Russia/steppes/north of Black Sea were totally not taken into account. Wouldn't it be meaningful to know how exactly the 3 Bronze Age individuals that are ancestor to almost 2/3rd of European maledom are connected to the people of the steppes at that time period and before? It's like a crucial part of the picture. Why leave it out, especially as uncertainty has been indicated:

- "While it is unclear exactly who the men were that first fathered these paternal lines, it is likely that they were influential or powerful individuals."

- And previous post's article: "Although it is still unclear who exactly the 'fathers' in these paternal lineages were, or even if they were born in Europe, the scientists believe they were influential and powerful individuals, likely tribal chieftains.")



She added that the social structure in the early Bronze Age would have allowed the lineages of powerful individuals to become dominant.



'We think that a social structure in which resources and power are more easily accessible to only some men may allow for a few paternal lineages to become very frequent in a short amount of time.'



[img caption] Researchers analysed Y chromosome DNA from 17 different populations around Europe and the Middle East





Read more:

nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/ncomms8152

Large-scale recent expansion of European patrilineages shown by population resequencing : Nature Communications : Nature Publishing Group

THE 11 FATHERS OF ASIA



More than 800 million men living today are descended from just eleven men, including the ruthless Mongolian leader Genghis Khan, according to new research.



Geneticists have been able to find eleven distinctive sequences in Y-chromosomes - the chunk of DNA that is only carried by men - that are persistent in modern populations in Asia.



These are thought to originate from the Middle East to Southeast Asia between 2100BC and 1100AD.

(I'd like specific data on Indian subcontinent. Pre-islam and Changeez Khan et al.)



They found that 37.8 per cent of the 5,000 men they tested belonged to one of these eleven lineages.



If this is reflected in the entire Asian population, then it could mean around 830 million men living in Asia currently owe their Y-chromosomes to one of these eleven men.

(That's a big if. I doubt there's much Changeez in non-Mongolian and non-islamic Indians and Sri Lankans for example.)



Among them is a lineage that has previously been attributed to a Chinese ruler called Giocangga, who died in 1583 and whose grandson founded the Qing Dynasty that ruled China between 1644 and 1912.



Giocangga is thought to have had many children with his wives and concubines and is the direct male ancestor of more than 1.5 million men.



The researchers also found that another of the lineages appears to have population clusters that are concentrated along the Silk Road trading route and date back to around 850AD.



This suggests they may have their origins among the powerful rulers who dominated the steppes where the route passed - the Khitan, Tangut Xia, Juchin, Kara-Khitan and Mongol empires.

Haven't yet read the nature article yet.



Can't believe they left out the steppes and seeing if the 3 individuals traced back there or not, and where and when the people in the steppe trace too (was it in or before the Bronze Age, etc).

Why the silence on the steppes? E European is said to have influenced W European gene pool in this era. But would like the inevitable storytelling tied back in *this* data, to these 3 individuals, if there is a link back and how.

Even Palestine and Turkey were taken into account in this study, but not Ukraine or Russia or Baltics. Surely most of them are in Europe too...