A new publication by our group reveals the fine grain details of the genetic history of the Italians and provides new insights into the peopling of Europe.
Category Archives: News
Capelli group publish paper in Current Opinion in Genetics & Development
A review on the genetic history of Southern Africa by Francesco and Cristian has just been published in Current Opinion in Genetics & Development.
Montinaro F, Capelli C (2018)
“The evolutionary history of Southern Africa”
Abstract
The genomic variability of Southern African groups is characterized by an exceptional degree of diversity, which is the result of long-term local evolutionary history, migrations and gene-flow. Over the last few years several investigations have identified and described signatures related to these processes, revealing how ancient and more recent events have shaped the structure and ancestry composition of local populations. Here we discuss recent insights into the genetic history of the Southernmost part of the African continent provided by the analysis of modern and ancient genomes. Future work is expected to clarify the population dynamics associated with the emergence of Homo sapiens across Africa and the details of the process of dispersion and admixture associated with the arrival of Bantu-speaking groups in the region.
Gencove and Capelli’s group to tackle human saliva microbiome!
The result of the Gencove call for innovative uses of low-coverage genome sequencing has been now released and our proposal has been one of the two winners!
In collaboration with Gencove, we will investigate the role of diet and environment in shaping the human saliva microbiome by sequencing DNA from the saliva of individuals belonging to Southern African populations. They all share a common genetic background but have different subsistence strategies (agriculturalist or pastoralists) or live in different regions (Namibia and Lesotho in two different ecological zones, highlands and lowlands). The gut microbiome has been shown to differ across geographically close groups exploring different diets. Using the low coverage sequence data we will test if saliva microbial communities are similarly influenced by variation in diet. The use of whole genome sequence data will offer the opportunity to compare affinities and differences between groups in both their microbial taxonomic composition and their metabolic profile.
There is more in spit than you might think!
Read from the Gencove Blog to hear more about the genome challenge and the winners: https://medium.com/the-seeq-blog/and-the-winner-is-e7b50541b24a
Cristian Capelli at the University of the Free State (UFS), South Africa
Cristian Capelli gave a lecture at the Department of Genetics at the University of the Free State (UFS), South Africa, titled “People on the move: population structure and gene-flow in Southern Africa”
Capelli group publish paper in Genetics
Montinaro F, Busby GBJ, Gonzalez-Santos M, Oosthuitzen O, Oosthutizen E, Anagnostou P, Destro-Bisol G, Pascali VL, Capelli C (2016)
“Complex Ancient Genetic Structure and Cultural Transitions in Southern African Populations”
Abstract
The characterization of the structure of southern Africa populations has been the subject of numerous genetic, medical, linguistic, archaeological and anthropological investigations. Current diversity in the subcontinent is the result of complex events of genetic admixture and cultural contact between early inhabitants and migrants that arrived in the region over the last 2,000 years. Here we analyze 1,856 individuals from 91 populations, comprising novel and published genotype data, to characterize the genetic ancestry profiles of 631 individuals from 51 southern African populations. Combining both local ancestry and allele frequency based analyses we identify a tripartite, ancient, Khoesan-related genetic structure. This structure correlates neither with linguistic affiliation nor subsistence strategy, but with geography, revealing the importance of isolation by distance dynamics in the area. Fine-mapping of these components in southern African populations reveals that admixture and cultural reversion involving several Khoesan groups and highlights that Bantu speakers and Coloured individuals have different mixtures of these ancient ancestries.
New preprint submitted on biorXiV : “Complex ancient genetic structure and cultural transitions in southern African populations.”
Abstract
The characterization of the structure of southern Africa populations has been the subject of numerous genetic, medical, linguistic, archaeological and anthropological investigations. Current diversity in the subcontinent is the result of complex episodes of genetic admixture and cultural contact between the early inhabitants and the migrants that have arrived in the region over the last 2,000 years, with some of the variation present in the past being now lost as the result of cultural and demographic assimilation by surrounding populations. Here we analyze 1,856 individuals from 91 populations, comprising novel and available genotype data to characterize the genetic ancestry profiles of southern African populations. Combining local ancestry and allele frequency analyses we identify a tripartite, ancient, Khoesan-related genetic structure, which correlates with geography, but not with linguistic affiliation or subsistence strategy. The fine mapping of these components in southern African populations reveals admixture dynamics and episodes of cultural reversion involving several Khoesan groups and highlights different mixtures of ancestral components in Bantu speakers and Coloured individuals.
Capelli group publish paper in Current Biology
Credits: Alessandro Corlianò
Busby GBJ1,2, Hellenthal G3, Montinaro F1, Tofanelli S4, Bulayeva K5, Rudan I6, Zemunik T7, Hayward C8, Toncheva D9, Karachanak-Yankova S9, Nesheva D9, Anagnostou P10,11, Cali F12, Brisighelli F13, Romano V14, LeFranc G15, Buresi C15, Chibani JB16, Haj-Khelil A16, Denden S16, Ploski R17, Krajewski P18, Hervig T19, Moen T20, Herrera RJ21, Wilson JF6, Myers S2,22, and Capelli C1 (2015)
The role of recent admixture in forming the contemporary West Eurasian genomic landscape
link
Over the past few years, studies of DNA isolated from human fossils and archaeological remains have generated considerable novel insight into the history of our species. Several landmark papers have described the genomes of ancient human ancestors and have demonstrated that contemporary humans harbour genetic material from ancient close relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, and that ancient human individuals are often genetically distinct from nearby extant populations whilst also showing affinities with populations from further afield. Across West Eurasia, there is growing genetic evidence of large-scale, dynamic population movements over the period between 10,000 to 2,000 years ago, such that the ancestry across present-day populations is likely to be a mixture of several ancient groups. Whilst these efforts are bringing the details of West Eurasian pre-history into increasing focus, studies aimed at understanding the processes behind the generation of the current West Eurasian genetic landscape have been limited by the number of populations sampled, or have been either too regional or global in their outlook. Here, using recently described haplotype-based techniques, we present the results of a systematic survey of recent admixture history across Western Eurasia and show that admixture is a universal property across almost all groups. Admixture in all regions except North Western Europe involved the influx of genetic material from outside of West Eurasia, which we date to specific time periods. Within Northern, Western, and Central Europe admixture tended to occur between local groups during the period 300 to 1200CE. Comparisons of the genetic profiles of West Eurasians before and after admixture show that population movements within the last 1500 years are likely to have maintained differentiation amongst groups. Our analysis provides a timeline of the gene flow events that have generated the contemporary genetic landscape of West Eurasia.
Listen to Kat Arney of The Naked Scientist interviewing Cristian on genes and the history of Europe.
Animation showing gene-flow events involving sources outside Western Eurasia. Circles are located in relation to the inferred location of Western Eurasian clusters. Colours and size of the circles refer to the involved donor populations and their contributions. Each cartoon reports contributions up to the indicated time. (Credits: Montinaro F/Busby GBJ/Capelli C)
News articles on this paper:
University of Oxford
Gizmodo
GenomeWeb
EurekAlert!
RedOrbit
Le Scienze (Italian)
1 Department of Zoology, University of Oxford
2 Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford
3 UCL Genetics Institute
4 Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Pisa
5 N.I.Vavilov Institute of General Genetics
6 Centre for Population Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh Medical School
7 Department of Medical Biology, School of Medicine Split
8 MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine (IGMM), University of
Edinburgh
9 Department of Medical Genetics, National Human Genome Center, Medical University Sofia
10 Department of Environmental Biology, Università La Sapienza
11 Istituto Italiano di Antropologia
12 Laboratorio di Genetica Molecolare, IRCCS Associazione Oasi Maria SS
13 Forensic Genetics Laboratory, Institute of Legal Medicine, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
14 Dipartimento di Fisica e Chimica, Università di Palermo
15 Laboratoire d’Immunogénétique Moléculaire, Institut de Génétique Humaine, Université Montpellier
16 Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Monastir
17 Department of Medical Genetics, Warsaw Medical Univesity
18 Department of Forensic Medicine, Warsaw Medical University
19 Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen
20 NTNU, Trondheim
21 Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Florida International University
22 Department of Statistics, University of Oxford
Capelli group publish paper in Genome Biology and Evolution
González-Santos M, Montinaro F, Oosthuizen O, Oosthuizen E, Busby GBJ, Anagnostou P, Destro-Bisol G, Pascali V, Capelli C (2015)
“Genome-wide SNP analysis of Southern African populations provides new insights into the dispersal of Bantu speaking groups”
link
Capelli group publish paper in European Journal of Human Genetics
Tofanelli S, Brisighelli F, Anagnostou P, Busby GB, Ferri G, Thomas MG, Taglioli L, Rudan I, Zemunik T, Hayward C, Bolnick D, Romano V, Cali F, Luiselli D, Shepherd GB, Tusa S, Facella A, Capelli C (2015)
“The Greeks in the West: genetic signatures of the Hellenic colonisation in southern Italy and Sicily”
link
News articles on this paper:
Forbes
Adnkronos (Italian)
Focus (Italian)
Green Report (Italian)
Il Giornale (Italian)
Il Tempo (Italian)
La Sicilia (Italian)
Panorama (Italian)
Stamp Toscana (Italian)
Human Evolutionary Genetics Group 