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Indo‐European origins: A computer‐simulation test of five hypotheses
Author(s) -
Barbujani Guido,
Sokal Robert R.,
Oden Neal L.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.1330960202
Subject(s) - microevolution , biological dispersal , population , range (aeronautics) , isolation by distance , gene flow , genetic drift , geography , genetic structure , geographical distance , steppe , allele frequency , gene pool , evolutionary biology , allele , biology , genetic variation , demography , archaeology , genetics , genetic diversity , materials science , sociology , composite material , gene
Allele frequency distributions were generated by computer simulation of five models of microevolution in European populations. Genetic distances calculated from these distributions were compared with observed genetic distances among Indo‐European speakers. The simulated models differ in complexity, but all incorporate random genetic drift and short‐range gene flow (isolation by distance). The best correlations between observed and simulated data were obtained for two models where dispersal of Neolithic farmers from the Near East depends only on population growth. More complex models, where the timing of the farmers' expansion is constrained by archaeological time data, fail to account for a larger fraction of the observed genetic variation; this is also the case for a model including late Neolithic migrations from the Pontic steppes. The genetic structure of current populations speaking Indo‐European languages seems therefore to largely reflect a Neolithic expansion. This is consistent with the hypothesis of a parallel spread of farming technologies and a proto‐Indo‐European language in the Neolithic. Allele‐frequency gradients among Indo‐European speakers may be due either to incomplete admixture between dispersing farmers, who presumably spoke proto‐Indo‐European, and pre‐existing hunters and gatherers (as in the traditional demic diffusion hypothesis), or to founder effects during the farmers' dispersal. By contrast, successive migrational waves from the East, if any, do not seem to have had genetic consequences detectable by the present comparison of observed and simulated allele frequencies. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.