Most European men descend from a handful of Bronze Age forefathers

Science Daily ^ | 05/27/2015 | University of Leicester

[SeekAndFind]

Geneticists from the University of Leicester have discovered that most European men descend from just a handful of Bronze Age forefathers, due to a 'population explosion' several thousand years ago.

The project, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust, was led by Professor Mark Jobling from the University of Leicester's Department of Genetics and the study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

The research team determined the DNA sequences of a large part of the Y chromosome, passed exclusively from fathers to sons, in 334 men from 17 European and Middle Eastern populations.

This research used new methods for analysing DNA variation that provides a less biased picture of diversity, and also a better estimate of the timing of population events.

This allowed the construction of a genealogical tree of European Y chromosomes that could be used to calculate the ages of branches. Three very young branches, whose shapes indicate recent expansions, account for the Y chromosomes of 64% of the men studied.

Professor Jobling 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."

In addition, past population sizes were estimated, and showed that a continuous swathe of populations from the Balkans to the British Isles underwent an explosion in male population size between 2000 and 4000 years ago.

This contrasts with previous results for the Y chromosome, and also with the picture presented by maternally-inherited mitochondrial DNA, which suggests much more ancient population growth.

[OK Sun]

For those interested, link to the actual paper: Large-scale recent expansion of European patrilineages shown by population resequencing. PDF available.

[Jolla]

LOL, it took years but I was happy to find Upfront a few years ago, my father had it and sold it in a garage sale and I really missed Willie and Joe - I have a buddy that looks exactly like those guys.

[Tijeras_Slim]

It’s a great book.

[OK Sun]

If you're interested in the procedures the used, you can read the paper to see how accurate you think they were:

Samples and approach. To address the lack of a systematic population-based NGS study of European MSY diversity, we assembled a collection of 20 randomly chosen male DNA samples from each of 17 populations from Europe and the Middle East (Supplementary Table 1).

[ExCTCitizen]

Interesting..
Very interesting

[WayneS]

That’s true!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks afraidfortherepublic.

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• more topics from the helix, make mine a double keyword

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks OK Sun!

[zzwhale]

ALL THIS FROM 334 MEN....... horseshit

[Hawthorn]

>> Charlemagne, at least, earned his throne at the Battle of Pointers <<

I think it actually was his father, Charles Martel, who won at Poitiers.

[Verginius Rufus]

Charles Martel was Charlemagne’s grandfather. Charlemagne’s father was Pippin/Pepin the Short, the first of the family to have the title of king rather than mayor of the palace.

[MattinNJ]

Charlemagne and his grandfather were badasses

[MattinNJ]

I grew up in the 80s when most bros lifted. I cannot believe how ...small teenagers are these days.

[MattinNJ]

Charles Magne was his grandfather

[MattinNJ]

Ugghh. Charles Martel- or Charles the Hammer- was his grandfather

[NELSON111]

I've got at least three lines back to Charlemagne and yes the greatest point of pride there is being related to the hammer.

And...hello cousin!

[EternalVigilance]

Howdy cuz.

Parlez vous francais?

Me neither....

[To Hell With Poverty]

Well this means only one thing, given recent world events — HAMMER TIME!

[Benito Cereno]

Wait, I thought marriage was one man, one woman.

[A CA Guy]

So three horny bronze age men did a Ben Franklin and got all those women pregnant.