H11 Newsletter - Volume 5, Issue 3, 2021

 H11 Newsletter

Volume 5, Issue 3, 2021

Table of Contents

1.    Project Statistics
2.    Other
3.    H11 in the news

1.    Project Statistics:

Combined GEDCOMs Uploaded        49
DISTINCT mtDNA Haplogroups        17
Family Finder       289
Maternal Ancestor Information       335
mtDNA               373
mtDNA Full Sequence        365
mtDNA Plus        371
mtDNA Subgroups          23
Total Members        410
Unreturned Kits          16

2.    Other

There are two new members since the last update on the subclades with Issue 2.

3.    H11 in the News

The Genetic History of Northern Europe, Mittnik et al, https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2017/03/03/113241.full.pdf 

The many authors in this paper represent a number of well known Universities and the link above takes you to that list of authors and their affiliations. 

I am going to quote their abstract as it is rather interesting to H11 in my thoughts. 

“Recent  ancient  DNA  studies  have  revealed  that  the  genetic  history  of  modern Europeans  was  shaped  by  a  series  of  migration  and  admixture  events  between deeply  diverged  groups.  While  these  events  are  well  described  in  Central  and Southern Europe, genetic evidence from Northern Europe surrounding the Baltic Sea is still sparse. Here we report genome-wide DNA data from 24 ancient North  Europeans  ranging  from  ~7,500  to  200  calBCE  spanning  the  transition from  a  hunter-gatherer  to  an  agricultural  lifestyle,  as  well  as  the  adoption  of bronze metallurgy. We show that Scandinavia was settled after the retreat of the glacial  ice  sheets  from  a  southern  and  a  northern  route,  and  that  the  first Scandinavian  Neolithic  farmers  derive  their  ancestry  from  Anatolia  1000  years earlier than previously demonstrated. The range of Western European Mesolithic  hunter-gatherers  extended  to  the  east  of  the  Baltic  Sea,  where  these populations  persisted  without  gene-flow  from  Central  European  farmers  until around 2,900 calBCE when the arrival of steppe pastoralists introduced a major shift  in  economy  and  established  wide-reaching  networks  of  contact  within  the Corded Ware Complex."

Extended Data Figure 5 (end of paper) displays a shift in the mtDNA haplogroup frequencies beginning in the Mesolothic (Middle Stone Age) – Early/Middle Neolithic (10,000 BC – 4500 BC) to the Late Neolithic (4500 – 2000 BC) and then the Bronze Age (3300 BC – 1200 BC).  

 

The graphic presented in the paper is very interesting with regard to H haplogroup overall. This was a very successful haplogroup expanding from 3% to 47% between 10,000 BC and 1200 BC.
 
The orange represents H haplogroup and the Mesolithic period shows just 3% of H present in the eastern Baltic region. The interesting part to me is that H11 is believed to have wintered during the Last Glacial Maximum at Ukraine Ice Refuge. To find H present at 3% in a sample size of 31 in this early time period is quite interesting. As H expanded across Europe then we begin to see the mixture of H subclades but perhaps it is a bit illusionary to think that the 3% was H11. Looking back at Volume 5 Issue 2 and Table S3 under the H11 in the News section one can see the many subclades that are found presently in Poland which borders on the Baltic States.  The question I ask myself is what subclades of H were believed to have wintered in the Ukraine Ice Refuge? I shall pursue that thought. 

Any submissions to this newsletter can be submitted to Elizabeth Kipp (kippeeb@rogers.com).