Geographical Patterns in European Mitochondrial DNA

[Frans_Jozef]

Martin Richards,1 Vincent Macaulay,2 Antonio Torroni,3 and Hans-Ju¨rgen Bandelt4
1Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, United Kingdom; 2Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, Oxford; 3Dipartimento di Genetica e Microbiologia, Universita` di Pavia, Pavia, Italy; and 4Fachbereich Mathematik, Universita¨t Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Previous studies of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in Europe and the Near East have suggested that, in contrast with classical markers and the Y chromosome, mtDNA does not exhibit significant geographical structuring. Here, we show that, with a sufficiently large sample size and a better resolved mtDNA tree, clades of mtDNA do indeed exhibit gradients similar to those of other marker systems. However, the more detailed analyses afforded by molecular sequence data suggest that the explanations for these gradients are likely to be much more complex than those proposed for classical markers.

[Frans_Jozef]

Cumbrian:
Its interesting that in the "region-based PC analysis" of maternal lineages the Central Mediterraneans group together with Eastern Mediterraneans instead of being intermediate between the eastern and western regions.

I meant that the centre is closer to the east than the west.

Central Mediterreneans and East Mediterreneans, although showing closer ties to Europeans, take an intermediary position between the Europeans and Near Easterners, which form as a distinct group.

The interpretation of the Alpine group is dual; a cross-road between the main regions of Europe allowing genic exchange and great diversity, or the high altitude and lacustrine habitation created the same effect of inhospitable remoteness and consequential drift/isolation course which mark Northwest Europeans/the Atlantid group as offliners from other regions with more fluid boundaries.