Ideas, Inventions And Innovations
Ancient DNA Reveals Origin of First Bronze Age Civilizations in Europe
Skeleton of one of the two individuals who lived in the middle of the Bronze Age and whose complete genome was reconstructed and sequenced by the Lausanne team. It comes from the archaeological site of Elati-Logkas, in northern Greece.
Credit: Ephorate of Antiquities of Kozani, Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Greece. Courtesy of Dr Georgia Karamitrou-Mentessidi.
The first civilisations to build monumental palaces and urban centres in Europe are more genetically homogenous than expected, according to the first study to sequence whole genomes gathered from ancient archaeological sites around the Aegean Sea. The study, which is first-coauthored by Olga Dolgova, from the Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG-CRG), part of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), has been published in the journal Cell.
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Credit: Delaneau Group
Thousands of genetic markers have already been robustly associated with complex human traits, such as Alzheimer s disease, cancer, obesity, or height. To discover these associations, researchers need to compare the genomes of many individuals at millions of genetic locations or markers, and therefore require cost-effective genotyping technologies. A new statistical method, developed by Olivier Delaneau s group at the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and the University of Lausanne (UNIL), offers game-changing possibilities. For less than $1 in computational cost, GLIMPSE is able to statistically infer a complete human genome from a very small amount of data. The method offers a first realistic alternative to current approaches relying on a predefined set of genetic markers, and so allows a wider inclusion of underrepresented populations. The study, which suggests a paradigm shift for data generation in biomedical research, is published in