Maternal genetic line of Ötzi mummy is extinct, according to a study – Terra Colombia

A study of DNA from the frozen mummy Otzi, the oldest European man who has certainty, confirmed that his maternal genetic line is extinct in the current population, as published today in the journal “Nature”.

To clarify whether maternal genetic line of “ice man” who lived in the Alps over 5,000 years ago, has left its mark on the current population, researchers at the Academy European Bolzano (Eurac) compared the mitochondrial DNA with 1,077 modern samples.

In 2012, an analysis of the Y chromosome (transmitted from father to son) showed that paternal genetic line of Ötzi still present in the current population.

However, studies on mitochondrial DNA (passed from the mother to her children) left many open questions.

The author of this study and a biologist at the Eurac, Valentina Coia, recalled that the mitochondrial DNA of the mother “was first tested in 1994,” but that the genetic relationship with the current population “it was not clear.”

The most recent study on this, in 2008, certified that the maternal lineage (called K1f) had not been identified in the present, but it was not clear if it was due to an insufficient number Sampler or to be extinct.

The first hypothesis could not be rejected because the investigation had only 85 samples K1 lineage, and none came from the Tyrol.

The researchers of this study, in collaboration with the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and the University of La Sapienza in Rome, compared the mitochondrial DNA with 1,077 individuals from line K1, of which 42 came from the eastern Alps and were analyzed for the first time.

This new comparison allowed to conclude that maternal lineage not still present in modern populations.

To discover why this disappearance Eurac researchers analyzed the mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome paternal Ötzi with data from various prehistoric archaeological samples found in 14 areas in Europe available .

The results revealed that the lineage of the father was very common in different parts of Europe during the Stone Age, while the mother probably only existed in the Alps, in a population that did not grow demographically.