Voyages of the Vikings: Human haploid variation in northern Europe

Abstract

Europe is a region characterized by a long history of both settlement and resettlement. This study uses information from the haploid systems of the human genome in order to investigate the presence of population structure in Europe and discuss the mitigating effects of shared population history and the impact of evolutionary forces. By means of two kinds of data from the Y chromosome, the study first establishes patterns of diversity across the entirety of Europe. More in-depth analyses investigate the evolutionary effects of settlement and colonization on overall genetic diversity of populations. Finally, considering data from the entire control region sequence, an effort is made to estimate patterns of mitochondrial diversity and compare their import to that of the Y chromosome.