engleski

Possible genetic continuity or steppe component in a Bronze Age Croatian sample from a prehistoric ancient DNA time series

Ancient DNA studies are currently going through an age of rapid development, thanks to recent technological and methodological advances the extraction of more data from less and more degraded material. This allows for broader geographical studies with reduced costs. Here we present preliminary results on a human Croatian time series that will include around 30 individuals, covering Neolithic cultures such as Starcevo, Cardial Impresso, Danilo, Sopot and Hvar, as well as five Early to Late Bronze Age sites. The eight samples analysed so far have yielded human DNA contents ranging from 0.15 to 68.32%, with five above 30%. Low-density principal component analysis based on genome-wide SNP data seems to show few differences between Early (Zemunica Cave) and Middle (Zidana Cave) Neolithic samples, but a later Bronze-Age sample from Jazinka Cave plots very close to modern Croatians and Balkan populations in general. Mitochondrial haplogroups, with scores of 0.53 to 0.64, seem to be in conformity with what would be expected to be found in Early European Farmers (H1, K1, K2), while our Bronze Age individual showed either HV0 or H4, due to low coverage. It is plausible that this H4 haplogroup in Bronze Age Croatia is a result of Late Neolithic Indo- European migrations. The position of this individual in the principal component analysis plot may also support that steppe component. More samples will be screened in the near future and a subset will be sent for low-coverage sequencing, then allowing strong population genetic analysis.

prehistory; Croatia; ancient DNA; next-generation sequencing

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