Diachronic mtDNA study of the long time occupied archaeological site of Segobriga (Spain) and comparison with nowadays population

Abstract

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis is an important source of information about biogeographical mother lineage origin of the individuals. Furthermore, when we face up degraded DNA samples, many times mtDNA is the only source of genetic information. Even, sometimes, this genetic marker could provide information about kinship through maternal lineage.This study is focused on 14 archaeological individuals from the Segobriga archaeological site (Saélices, Cuenca, central-eastern Spain). The relevance of Segobriga is that it has been occupied from the V century B.C. by different human populations throughout ten centuries; from the Roman Imperial period of the Iberian Peninsula, until the end of the Muslim period. So that, the 14 selected individuals belong to different periods within the total time of occupation of the site; concretely there were selected: five from the Muslim period, seven from Late Roman period, one Visigoth and one individual without a precise chronology assigned.We have studied the HVI and HVII mitochondrial DNA regions, by the amplification of short overlapping fragments. The objectives of this analysis were: the search of the biogeographical origin of the individuals, and the establishment of comparisons among the different chronological groups, including nowadays population of the region, trying to evaluate the genetic contribution of the past populations in the current population.We have obtained HVI and HVII regions mtDNA profiles in 8 of the 14 individuals, establishing their mtDNA haplogroup; and only partial HVII region mitochondrial DNA profiles in 5 of them. All the individuals shown typical European mtDNA haplogroups (H2a2a1g, H5, H5a, K, U5a, U5b1c, T2e, H), some of them with significant nowadays presence in Middle East (T2e, U5b1c, U5a and H5).