Most of these are typical of modern European populations, but a few East Asian (M) [38] and sub-Saharan African (L1b, L2a, L2c, L3d, L3e) [39], [39] mtDNAs were also detected.
Analysis of mtDNA hypervariable segment I (HVS I) sequences in modern European populations revealed the presence of a bulk of hg U5 subclusters that demonstrated coalescence ages around 11 13 ky and less [8].
The frequency of hg U5 in modern European populations is on average 7% [1],[4],[5], but recent studies of ancient mtDNA have shown that U5 haplotypes were common among Mesolithic and Neolithic Europeans, especially of central and eastern parts of Europe [6],[7].
While the true level of autozygosity in modern outbred populations is unknown, these base rates are likely to be close to the true level because the simulation parameters and selective sampling of the sequence data were chosen to mimic the level of LD and distribution of ROHs found in modern European populations.
Our analysis simulated sequence data that mimicked LD and polymorphism properties found in modern European heritage populations, thus allowing the sequence to resemble expected autozygosity in an outbred population as well as provide perfect information about truly autozygous segments.
First, consider an "old" selection event that occurred prior to differentiation of modern European and African populations.
Over the years, the Neanderthals have been portrayed as everything from an evolutionary dead end to the direct ancestors of modern European and western Asian populations.
On a planet of finite size (diameter 7,917 miles) where limited natural resources are already under siege, some caution is in order, especially since well over half of the world's population cannot earn a modern (European equivalent) lifestyle.
But today this N1a mtDNA type is very rare (0.2%) in Europeans, suggesting that first Neolithic farmers did not have a strong impact on the genetic population structure of the modern European female lineages.
