Farmers sow their seed from east to west
21 January 2010
The practice of farming spread throughout Europe from a region extending from the eastern Mediterranean coast to the Persian Gulf known as the 'Fertile Crescent', but it was not known whether this spread was driven by the migration of farmers or the transfer of ideas and technologies to indigenous hunter-gatherers.
A new study, published in the open access journal 'PLoS Biology', focuses on the genetic diversity of the Y chromosome, which is passed from father to son, to track migration through Europe.
Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow Professor Mark Jobling, who led the research, said: "We focused on the commonest Y-chromosome lineage in Europe, carried by about 110 million men - it follows a gradient from south-east to north-west, reaching almost 100 per cent frequency in Ireland. We looked at how the lineage is distributed, how diverse it is in different parts of Europe, and how old it is."
The new findings suggest that the lineage spread together with farming from the Near East.
Dr Patricia Balaresque, first author of the study, added: "In total, this means that more than 80 per cent of European Y chromosomes descend from incoming farmers. In contrast, most maternal genetic lineages seem to descend from hunter-gatherers. To us, this suggests a reproductive advantage for farming males over indigenous hunter-gatherer males during the switch from hunting and gathering to farming - maybe, back then, it was just sexier to be a farmer."
The invention of farming allowed for the development of societies that stayed put rather than wandering in search of food and so is perhaps the most important cultural change in the history of modern humans.
Image: Egypt; traditional ploughing with cattle. Credit: Carole Reeves, Wellcome Images
Reference
Balaresque P et al. A predominantly neolithic origin for European paternal lineages. PLoS Biol 2010;8(1):e1000285.
