Spread of Agriculture from a Genetic Standpoint

Recent genetic studies demonstrated that Neolithic farming spread from Armenian population into Europe. For example, haplogroup G features its highest diversity among Armenians, indicating that it originated with Armenians before spreading to Caucasus and Europe.

Along with J2 clades, haplogroup G has been associated with the spread of agriculture in Europe in particular. The haplogroup is considered to have been originated somewhere in Armenian Highland.

These are the only area distinguished by the co-presence of deep basal branches and the occurrence of high sub-haplogroup diversity.

Haplogroup diversity ranged between a low 0.21 in Adyghes and a high 0.88 in Atrpatakan (Iran), 0.89 in Western Armenia, and 0.90 in Eastern Armenia. The latter are estimated the possible locations of the haplogroup’s origins.

In the Caucasus, one of the haplogroup’s characterizing features is lower haplogroup diversity in several populations, compared to Armenia, meaning that hg G is not autochthonous to the Caucasus.

Based on materials: PeopleOfAr

Sources of genetic analyzes and conclusions: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Major new paper on Y chromosome haplogroup G (Rootsi et al. 2012)