The mtDNA Legacy of the Levantine Early Upper Palaeolithic in Africa

doi:10.1126/science.1135566

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The mtDNA Legacy of the Levantine Early Upper Palaeolithic in Africa

Anna Olivieri,¹ Alessandro Achilli,¹ Maria Pala,¹ Vincenza Battaglia,¹ Simona Fornarino,¹ Nadia Al-Zahery,¹^,2 Rosaria Scozzari,³ Fulvio Cruciani,³ Doron M. Behar,⁴ Jean-Michel Dugoujon,⁵ Clotilde Coudray,⁵ A. Silvana Santachiara-Benerecetti,¹ Ornella Semino,¹ Hans-Jürgen Bandelt,⁶ Antonio Torroni¹^*

Sequencing of 81 entire human mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) belongingto haplogroups M1 and U6 reveals that these predominantly NorthAfrican clades arose in southwestern Asia and moved togetherto Africa about 40,000 to 45,000 years ago. Their arrival temporallyoverlaps with the event(s) that led to the peopling of Europeby modern humans and was most likely the result of the samechange in climate conditions that allowed humans to enter theLevant, opening the way to the colonization of both Europe andNorth Africa. Thus, the early Upper Palaeolithic population(s)carrying M1 and U6 did not return to Africa along the southerncoastal route of the "out of Africa" exit, but from the Mediterraneanarea; and the North African Dabban and European Aurignacianindustries derived from a common Levantine source.

¹ Dipartimento di Genetica e Microbiologia, Università di Pavia, Via Ferrata 1, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
² Department of Biotechnology, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Iraq.
³ diDipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Università "La Sapienza," Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
⁴ Molecular Medicine Laboratory, Rambam Health Care Campus, Efron 9 Street, Bat Galim, 31096 Haifa, Israel.
⁵ Centre d'Anthropologie, FRE 2960 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse III, 37, Allées Jules Guesde, 31073 Toulouse Cedex, France.
⁶ Department of Mathematics, University of Hamburg, Bundesstrasse 55, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: torroni{at}ipvgen.unipv.it

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In Science Magazine

LETTERS Timing of a Back-Migration into Africa: Peter Forster, Valentino Romano;, Anna Olivieri, Alessandro Achilli, Maria Pala, Vincenza Battaglia, Simona Fornarino, Nadia Al-Zahery, Rosaria Scozzari, Fulvio Cruciani, Doron M. Behar, Jean-Michel Dugoujon, Clotilde Coudray, A. Silvana Santachiara-Benerecetti, Ornella Semino, Hans-Jürgen Bandelt, and Antonio Torroni (6 April 2007)
Science 316 (5821), 50. [DOI: 10.1126/science.316.5821.50]
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