Publications by authors named "Stefania Vai"

Article Synopsis
  • This study examines an Upper Palaeolithic infant skeleton, Le Mura 1, from Grotta delle Mura in Italy, using various scientific methods including palaeogenomics and dental analyses.
  • The remains, dated to approximately 17,320-16,910 cal BP, provide insights into the infant's development, health issues, and the mother's low mobility during pregnancy.
  • The findings suggest a notable population turnover in the region and a decrease in genetic variation from northern to southern Italy, enhancing our understanding of early human life and genetics at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum.
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  • Elites were very important in shaping Europe after the Roman Empire fell, influencing both big and small communities during the Early Middle Ages.
  • Researchers studied a community in Italy from the 6th to 8th centuries and found that it was made up of related elite families that grew into one big family over time.
  • This community was diverse, welcoming different people as it developed, showing that powerful leaders could bring together various backgrounds instead of just sticking to their own.
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  • The Western Roman Empire started to fall apart in the 4th and 5th centuries, and different groups, called "barbarians," began to settle in the areas it left behind.
  • Researchers studied 38 burial sites from the 5th century in Lake Balaton, Hungary, to understand how communities formed after this collapse.
  • They found a lot of genetic variety among the people in these burial sites, with some showing influences from northern Europe, and discovered that burial customs were similar but the people's ancestry was quite different.
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Trade and colonization caused an unprecedented increase in Mediterranean human mobility in the first millennium BCE. Often seen as a dividing force, warfare is in fact another catalyst of culture contact. We provide insight into the demographic dynamics of ancient warfare by reporting genome-wide data from fifth-century soldiers who fought for the army of the Greek Sicilian colony of Himera, along with representatives of the civilian population, nearby indigenous settlements, and 96 present-day individuals from Italy and Greece.

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Sicily is one of the main islands of the Mediterranean Sea, and it is characterized by a variety of archaeological records, material culture and traditions, reflecting the history of migrations and populations' interaction since its first colonization, during the Paleolithic. These deep and complex demographic and cultural dynamics should have affected the genomic landscape of Sicily at different levels; however, the relative impact of these migrations on the genomic structure and differentiation within the island remains largely unknown. The available Sicilian modern genetic data gave a picture of the current genetic structure, but the paucity of ancient data did not allow so far to make predictions about the level of historical variation.

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An innovative protocol for the consolidation of ancient bone remains based on the use of nanometric HydroxyAPatite (HAP) was set up and tested through a multidisciplinary approach. A new protocol for the synthesis of HAP nanoparticles was developed, and the composition of the obtained nanomaterial was investigated through Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD); sizes, shape and morphology of the synthesized particles were studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The consolidation performance was evaluated by testing the new nanomaterial on degraded ancient bone findings.

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The first data obtained from ancient DNA samples were published more than thirty years ago [...

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The origin, development, and legacy of the enigmatic Etruscan civilization from the central region of the Italian peninsula known as Etruria have been debated for centuries. Here we report a genomic time transect of 82 individuals spanning almost two millennia (800 BCE to 1000 CE) across Etruria and southern Italy. During the Iron Age, we detect a component of Indo-European–associated steppe ancestry and the lack of recent Anatolian-related admixture among the putative non–Indo-European–speaking Etruscans.

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Background: Recently, the study of mitochondrial variability in ancient humans has allowed the definition of population dynamics that characterised Europe in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Despite the abundance of sites and skeletal remains few data are available for Italy.

Aim: We reconstructed the mitochondrial genomes of three Upper Palaeolithic individuals for some of the most important Italian archaeological contexts: Paglicci (South-Eastern Italy), San Teodoro (South-Western Italy) and Arene Candide (North-Western Italy) caves.

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Ancient human remains have the potential to explain a great deal about the prehistory of humankind. Due to recent technological and bioinformatics advances, their study, at the palaeogenomic level, can provide important information about population dynamics, culture changes, and the lifestyles of our ancestors. In this study, mitochondrial and nuclear genome data obtained from human bone remains associated with the Neolithic Globular Amphorae culture, which were recovered in the Megalithic barrow of Kierzkowo (Poland), were reanalysed to gain insight into the social organisation and use of the archaeological site and to provide information at the individual level.

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The NovaSeq 6000 is a sequencing platform from Illumina that enables the sequencing of short reads with an output up to 6 Tb. The NovaSeq 6000 uses the typical Illumina sequencing workflow based on library preparation, cluster generation by in situ amplification, and sequencing by synthesis. Flexibility is one of the major features of the NovaSeq 6000.

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Insects entombed in copal, the sub-fossilized resin precursor of amber, represent a potential source of genetic data for extinct and extant, but endangered or elusive, species. Despite several studies demonstrated that it is not possible to recover endogenous DNA from insect inclusions, the preservation of biomolecules in fossilized resins samples is still under debate. In this study, we tested the possibility of obtaining endogenous ancient DNA (aDNA) molecules from insects preserved in copal, applying experimental protocols specifically designed for aDNA recovery.

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Ancient DNA (aDNA) studies are frequently focused on the analysis of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is much more abundant than the nuclear genome, hence can be better retrieved from ancient remains. However, postmortem DNA damage and contamination make the data analysis difficult because of DNA fragmentation and nucleotide alterations. In this regard, the assessment of the heteroplasmic fraction in ancient mtDNA has always been considered an unachievable goal due to the complexity in distinguishing true endogenous variants from artifacts.

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Article Synopsis
  • All crops were developed from wild plants less than 12,000 years ago, with farmers picking the best traits to make them better for eating and growing.
  • * Domesticated plants have lost a lot of their original genetic diversity, making them more vulnerable to diseases and pests, which is a big concern for future food supplies.
  • * Research on ancient and modern beans shows that early domestication didn't lose much genetic variety, but modern beans are less diverse than those from long ago, likely due to how farmers have selected specific traits in recent times.
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  • The identification of the earliest dogs is complicated due to a lack of clear physical features during early domestication and similarities with wild wolves.
  • Research, including molecular and morphological studies of fossils from Italy, reveals that dogs existed at least 14,000 years ago, marking one of the earliest domesticated animals in Europe.
  • Genetic links between these ancient Italian dogs and those found in Germany suggest they played a significant role in cultural and genetic diversity during the Late Glacial period in Europe.
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Umbria is located in Central Italy and took the name from its ancient inhabitants, the Umbri, whose origins are still debated. Here, we investigated the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation of 545 present-day Umbrians (with 198 entire mitogenomes) and 28 pre-Roman individuals (obtaining 19 ancient mtDNAs) excavated from the necropolis of Plestia. We found a rather homogeneous distribution of western Eurasian lineages across the region, with few notable exceptions.

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Steppe-pastoralist-related ancestry reached Central Europe by at least 2500 BC, whereas Iranian farmer-related ancestry was present in Aegean Europe by at least 1900 BC. However, the spread of these ancestries into the western Mediterranean, where they have contributed to many populations that live today, remains poorly understood. Here, we generated genome-wide ancient-DNA data from the Balearic Islands, Sicily and Sardinia, increasing the number of individuals with reported data from 5 to 66.

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  • The transition to agriculture and pastoralism in the Neolithic era is linked to the development of pathogens that specifically affect humans, particularly Salmonella enterica.
  • Researchers studied eight ancient genomes of Salmonella from human skeletons in western Eurasia, revealing a previously uncharacterized branch that includes strains adapted to various mammals.
  • The findings indicate that these ancient strains evolved over 5,000 years, becoming more specialized to humans and suggesting that cultural shifts in society influenced the emergence of human-specific pathogens.
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One of the best documented Indo-European civilizations that inhabited Bulgaria is the Thracians, who lasted for more than five millennia and whose origin and relationships with other past and present-day populations are debated among researchers. Here we report 25 new complete mitochondrial genomes of ancient individuals coming from three necropolises located in different regions of Bulgaria - Shekerdja mogila, Gabrova mogila and Bereketska mogila - dated to II-III millennium BC. The identified mtDNA haplogroup composition reflects the mitochondrial variability of Western Eurasia.

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