MTDNA ANALYSIS REVEALS A MAJOR LATE PALEOLITHIC POPULATION EXPANSION FROM SOUTHWESTERN TO NORTHEASTERN EUROPE

mtDNA sequence variation was studied in 419 individuals from nine Eura sian populations, by high-resolution RFLP analysis, and it was followe d by sequencing of the control region of a subset of these mtDNAs and a detailed survey of previously published data from numerous other Eur opean populations. This analysis revealed that a major Paleolithic pop ulation expansion from the ''Atlantic zone'' (southwestern Europe) occ urred 10,000-15,000 years ago, after the Last Glacial Maximum. As an m tDNA marker for this expansion we identified haplogroup V, an autochth onous European haplogroup, which most likely originated in the norther n Iberian peninsula or southwestern France at about the time of the Yo unger Dryas. Its sister haplogroup, H, which is distributed throughout the entire range of Caucasoid populations and which originated in the Near East similar to 25,000-30,000 years ago, also took part in this expansion, thus rendering it by far the most frequent (40%-60%) haplog roup in western Europe. Subsequent migrations after the Younger Dryas eventually carried those ''Atlantic'' mtDNAs into central and northern Europe. This scenario, already implied by archaeological records, is given overwhelming support from both the distribution of the autochtho nous European Y chromosome type 15, as detected by the probes 49a/f, a nd the synthetic maps of nuclear data.