Biology subjects

Alihodzic, T.

Publications and source records attributed to Alihodzic, T..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Effects of ancestry, agriculture, and lactase persistence on the stature of prehistoric Europeans

Ancient DNA has revolutionized our understanding of human evolutionary history, but studies focusing solely on genetic variation tell an incomplete story by neglecting phenotypic outcomes. The relationships between genotype and phenotype can change over time, making it desirable to study them directly in ancient populations rather than present-day data. Here, we present a large-scale integration of ancient genomic and phenotypic data, analyzing femur length as a proxy for stature in 568 individuals with published whole-genome ancient DNA data across western Eurasia. Polygenic scores derived from modern European and East Asian genome-wide association studies retain predictive power in ancient populations, explaining up to 10% of phenotypic variance. Contrary to longstanding archaeological hypotheses, we find that Neolithic populations were only modestly shorter than preceding Mesolithic groups, with differences at least partly attributable to genetic rather than environmental factors, challenging narratives of systematic stature decline following the transition to agriculture. Finally, we find that the lactase persistence allele had a large positive effect on stature in ancient individuals (0.24 standard deviations), even though it shows no association with height in modern populations. This gene-environment interaction highlights the limitation of using present-day genetic data to infer past phenotypic relationships. Our results underscore the value of integrating genetic and morphological data from ancient populations to reconstruct the dynamics of human adaptation.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2022

Stable population structure in Europe since the Iron Age, despite high mobility

Ancient DNA research in the past decade has revealed that European population structure changed dramatically in the prehistoric period (14,000-3,000 years before present, YBP), reflecting the widespread introduction of Neolithic farmer and Bronze Age Steppe ancestries. However, little is known about how population structure changed from the historical period onward (3,000 YBP - present). To address this, we collected whole genomes from 204 individuals from Europe and the Mediterranean, many of which are the first historical period genomes from their region (e.g. Armenia and France). We found that most regions show remarkable inter-individual heterogeneity. At least 7% of historical individuals carry ancestry uncommon in the region where they were sampled, some indicating cross-Mediterranean contacts. Despite this high level of mobility, overall population structure across western Eurasia is relatively stable through the historical period up to the present, mirroring geography. We show that, under standard population genetics models with local panmixia, the observed level of dispersal would lead to a collapse of population structure. Persistent population structure thus suggests a lower effective migration rate than indicated by the observed dispersal. We hypothesize that this phenomenon can be explained by extensive transient dispersal arising from drastically improved transportation networks and the Roman Empires mobilization of people for trade, labor, and military. This work highlights the utility of ancient DNA in elucidating finer scale human population dynamics in recent history.

genetics↗