Dataset Information

The peopling of Europe and the cautionary tale of Y chromosome lineage R-M269.

ABSTRACT: Recently, the debate on the origins of the major European Y chromosome haplogroup R1b1b2-M269 has reignited, and opinion has moved away from Palaeolithic origins to the notion of a younger Neolithic spread of these chromosomes from the Near East. Here, we address this debate by investigating frequency patterns and diversity in the largest collection of R1b1b2-M269 chromosomes yet assembled. Our analysis reveals no geographical trends in diversity, in contradiction to expectation under the Neolithic hypothesis, and suggests an alternative explanation for the apparent cline in diversity recently described. We further investigate the young, STR-based time to the most recent common ancestor estimates proposed so far for R-M269-related lineages and find evidence for an appreciable effect of microsatellite choice on age estimates. As a consequence, the existing data and tools are insufficient to make credible estimates for the age of this haplogroup, and conclusions about the timing of its origin and dispersal should be viewed with a large degree of caution.

SUBMITTER: Busby GB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3259916 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

The peopling of Europe and the cautionary tale of Y chromosome lineage R-M269.

Busby George B J GB Brisighelli Francesca F Sánchez-Diz Paula P Ramos-Luis Eva E Martinez-Cadenas Conrado C Thomas Mark G MG Bradley Daniel G DG Gusmão Leonor L Winney Bruce B Bodmer Walter W Vennemann Marielle M Coia Valentina V Scarnicci Francesca F Tofanelli Sergio S Vona Giuseppe G Ploski Rafal R Vecchiotti Carla C Zemunik Tatijana T Rudan Igor I Karachanak Sena S Toncheva Draga D Anagnostou Paolo P Ferri Gianmarco G Rapone Cesare C Hervig Tor T Moen Torolf T Wilson James F JF Capelli Cristian C

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20110824 1730

Recently, the debate on the origins of the major European Y chromosome haplogroup R1b1b2-M269 has reignited, and opinion has moved away from Palaeolithic origins to the notion of a younger Neolithic spread of these chromosomes from the Near East. Here, we address this debate by investigating frequency patterns and diversity in the largest collection of R1b1b2-M269 chromosomes yet assembled. Our analysis reveals no geographical trends in diversity, in contradiction to expectation under the Neolit ...[more]

PMID: 21865258

Similar Datasets

Project description:FURIN is a pro-protein convertase previously shown to be important for placental syncytialisation (Zhou et al. [1]), a process of cell fusion whereby placental cytotrophoblast cells fuse to form a multinucleated syncytium. This finding has been broadly accepted however, we have evidence suggesting the contrary. Spontaneously syncytialising term primary human trophoblast cells and BeWo choriocarcinoma cells were treated with either FURIN siRNA or negative control siRNA or the protease inhibitor, DEC-RVKR-CMK, or vehicle. Cells were then left to either spontaneously syncytialise (primary trophoblasts) or were induced to syncytialise with forskolin (BeWo). Effects on syncytialisation were measured by determining human chorionic gonadotrophin secretion and E-cadherin protein levels. We showed that FURIN is not important for syncytialisation in either cell type. However, in primary trophoblasts another protease also inhibited by DEC-RVKR-CMK, may be involved. Our results directly contrast with those published by Zhou et al. Zhou et al. however, used first trimester villous explants to study syncytialisation, and we used term primary trophoblasts. Therefore, we suggest that FURIN may be involved in syncytialisation of first trimester trophoblasts, but not term trophoblasts. What is more concerning is that our results using BeWo cells do not agree with their results, even though for the most part, we used the same experimental design. It is unclear why these experiments yielded different results, however we wanted to draw attention to simple differences in measuring syncytialisation or flaws in method reporting (including omission of cell line source and passage numbers, siRNA concentration and protein molecular weights) and choice of immunoblot loading controls, that could impact on experimental outcomes. Our study shows that careful reporting of methods by authors and thorough scrutiny by referees are vital. Furthermore, a universal benchmark for measuring syncytialisation is required so that various studies of syncytialisation can be validated.

Dataset Information

The peopling of Europe and the cautionary tale of Y chromosome lineage R-M269.

Publications

The peopling of Europe and the cautionary tale of Y chromosome lineage R-M269.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets