Biology subjects

Lordkipanidze, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Lordkipanidze, D..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

Genome-scale sequencing and analysis of human, wolf and bison DNA from 25,000 year-old sediment

Archaeological sediments have been shown to preserve ancient DNA, but so far have not yielded genome-scale information of the magnitude of skeletal remains. We retrieved and analysed human and mammalian low-coverage nuclear and high-coverage mitochondrial genomes from Upper Palaeolithic sediments from Satsurblia cave, western Georgia, dated to 25,000 years ago. First, a human female genome with substantial basal Eurasian ancestry, which was an ancestry component of the majority of post-Ice Age people in the Near East, North Africa, and parts of Europe. Second, a wolf genome that is basal to extant Eurasian wolves and dogs and represents a previously unknown, likely extinct, Caucasian lineage that diverged from the ancestors of modern wolves and dogs before these diversified. Third, a bison genome that is basal to present-day populations, suggesting that population structure has been substantially reshaped since the Last Glacial Maximum. Our results provide new insights into the late Pleistocene genetic histories of these three species, and demonstrate that sediment DNA can be used not only for species identification, but also be a source of genome-wide ancestry information and genetic history. HighlightsO_LIWe demonstrate for the first time that genome sequencing from sediments is comparable to that of skeletal remains C_LIO_LIA single Pleistocene sediment sample from the Caucasus yielded three low-coverage mammalian ancient genomes C_LIO_LIWe show that sediment ancient DNA can reveal important aspects of the human and faunal past C_LIO_LIEvidence of an uncharacterized human lineage from the Caucasus before the Last Glacial Maximum C_LIO_LI[~]0.01-fold coverage wolf and bison genomes are both basal to present-day diversity, suggesting reshaping of population structure in both species C_LI

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Paleolithic DNA from the Caucasus reveals core of West Eurasian ancestry

The earliest ancient DNA data of modern humans from Europe dates to [~]40 thousand years ago1-4, but that from the Caucasus and the Near East to only [~]14 thousand years ago5,6, from populations who lived long after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) [~]26.5-19 thousand years ago7. To address this imbalance and to better understand the relationship of Europeans and Near Easterners, we report genome-wide data from two [~]26 thousand year old individuals from Dzudzuana Cave in Georgia in the Caucasus from around the beginning of the LGM. Surprisingly, the Dzudzuana population was more closely related to early agriculturalists from western Anatolia [~]8 thousand years ago8 than to the hunter-gatherers of the Caucasus from the same region of western Georgia of [~]13-10 thousand years ago5. Most of the Dzudzuana populations ancestry was deeply related to the post-glacial western European hunter-gatherers of the Villabruna cluster3, but it also had ancestry from a lineage that had separated from the great majority of non-African populations before they separated from each other, proving that such Basal Eurasians6,9 were present in West Eurasia twice as early as previously recorded5,6. We document major population turnover in the Near East after the time of Dzudzuana, showing that the highly differentiated Holocene populations of the region6 were formed by Ancient North Eurasian3,9,10 admixture into the Caucasus and Iran and North African11,12 admixture into the Natufians of the Levant. We finally show that the Dzudzuana population contributed the majority of the ancestry of post-Ice Age people in the Near East, North Africa, and even parts of Europe, thereby becoming the largest single contributor of ancestry of all present-day West Eurasians.

genetics↗