Genetic history of Italy

The genetic history of Italy is greatly influenced by geography and history. The ancestors of Italians were mostly Indo-European speaking peoples (such as Latins, Falisci, Picentes, Umbrians, Samnites, Oscans, Sicels and Adriatic Veneti, as well as Celts, Iapygians and Greeks) and pre-Indo-European speakers (Etruscans, Ligures, Rhaetians and Camunni in mainland Italy, Sicani in Sicily and the Nuragic people in Sardinia). During the Roman empire, the Italian peninsula attracted people from various regions of the Mediterranean basin, including Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.^[2] Based on DNA analysis, there is evidence of ancient regional genetic substructure and continuity within modern Italy dating to the pre-Roman and Roman periods.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

In their admixture ratios, Italians are similar to other Southern Europeans, and that is being of primarily Neolithic Early European Farmer ancestry, along with smaller, but still significant, amounts of Mesolithic Western Hunter-Gatherer, Bronze Age Steppe pastoralist (Indo-European speakers) and Chalcolithic or Bronze Age Iranian/Caucasus-related ancestry.^[4]^[7]^[8]^[9] Southern Italians are closest to the modern Greeks,^[10] while the Northern Italians are closest to the Spaniards and Southern French.^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14] There is also Bronze/Iron Age West Asian and Middle Eastern admixture in Italy, with a much lower incidence in Northern Italy compared with Central Italy and Southern Italy.^[15]^[8] North African admixture is also found in Southern Italy and the main islands, with the highest incidence being in Sicily and Sardinia.^[15]^[8]^[4]

^ Parolo S, Lisa A, Gentilini D, Di Blasio AM, Barlera S, Nicolis EB, et al. (November 2015). "Characterization of the biological processes shaping the genetic structure of the Italian population". BMC Genetics. 16: 132. doi:10.1186/s12863-015-0293-x. PMC 4640365. PMID 26553317.
^ Cite error: The named reference Antonio_2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Ralph P, Coop G (2013). "The geography of recent genetic ancestry across Europe". PLOS Biology. 11 (5): e1001555. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001555. PMC 3646727. PMID 23667324.
^ ^a ^b ^c Raveane A, Aneli S, Montinaro F, Athanasiadis G, Barlera S, Birolo G, et al. (September 2019). "Population structure of modern-day Italians reveals patterns of ancient and archaic ancestries in Southern Europe". Science Advances. 5 (9): eaaw3492. Bibcode:2019SciA....5.3492R. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaw3492. PMC 6726452. PMID 31517044.
^ Capocasa M, Anagnostou P, Bachis V, Battaggia C, Bertoncini S, Biondi G, et al. (2014). "Linguistic, geographic and genetic isolation: a collaborative study of Italian populations". Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 92 (92): 201–31. doi:10.4436/JASS.92001 (inactive 2024-04-26). PMID 24607994.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of April 2024 (link)
^ Modi A, Lancioni H, Cardinali I, Capodiferro MR, Rambaldi Migliore N, Hussein A, et al. (July 2020). "The mitogenome portrait of Umbria in Central Italy as depicted by contemporary inhabitants and pre-Roman remains". Scientific Reports. 10 (1): 10700. Bibcode:2020NatSR..1010700M. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-67445-0. PMC 7329865. PMID 32612271.
^ Cite error: The named reference Chiang_2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b ^c Cite error: The named reference Marcus_2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Fernandes DM, Mittnik A, Olalde I, Lazaridis I, Cheronet O, Rohland N, et al. (March 2020). "The spread of steppe and Iranian-related ancestry in the islands of the western Mediterranean". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 4 (3): 334–345. doi:10.1038/s41559-020-1102-0. PMC 7080320. PMID 32094539.
^ «Sicily and Southern Italy were heavily colonized by Greeks beginning in the eight to ninth century B.C.. The demographic development of the Greek colonies in Southern Italy was remarkable, and in classical times this region was called Magna Graecia (Great Greece) because it probably surpassed in numbers the Greek population of the motherland.» Cavalli-Sforza L, Menozzi P, Piazza A (1994). The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton University Press. p. 278. ISBN 978-0-691-08750-4.
^ Cite error: The named reference Haak_2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference DiGaetano_2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Price AL, Butler J, Patterson N, Capelli C, Pascali VL, Scarnicci F, et al. (January 2008). "Discerning the ancestry of European Americans in genetic association studies". PLOS Genetics. 4 (1): e236. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0030236. PMC 2211542. PMID 18208327.
^ Cite error: The named reference Peristera_2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference Fiorito_2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1] Parolo S, Lisa A, Gentilini D, Di Blasio AM, Barlera S, Nicolis EB, et al. (November 2015). "Characterization of the biological processes shaping the genetic structure of the Italian population". BMC Genetics. 16: 132. doi:10.1186/s12863-015-0293-x. PMC 4640365. PMID 26553317.

[Antonio_2019-2] Cite error: The named reference Antonio_2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[3] Ralph P, Coop G (2013). "The geography of recent genetic ancestry across Europe". PLOS Biology. 11 (5): e1001555. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001555. PMC 3646727. PMID 23667324.

[Raveane_2019-4] Raveane A, Aneli S, Montinaro F, Athanasiadis G, Barlera S, Birolo G, et al. (September 2019). "Population structure of modern-day Italians reveals patterns of ancient and archaic ancestries in Southern Europe". Science Advances. 5 (9): eaaw3492. Bibcode:2019SciA....5.3492R. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaw3492. PMC 6726452. PMID 31517044.

[Capocasa_2014-5] Capocasa M, Anagnostou P, Bachis V, Battaggia C, Bertoncini S, Biondi G, et al. (2014). "Linguistic, geographic and genetic isolation: a collaborative study of Italian populations". Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 92 (92): 201–31. doi:10.4436/JASS.92001 (inactive 2024-04-26). PMID 24607994.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of April 2024 (link)

[Modietal_2020-6] Modi A, Lancioni H, Cardinali I, Capodiferro MR, Rambaldi Migliore N, Hussein A, et al. (July 2020). "The mitogenome portrait of Umbria in Central Italy as depicted by contemporary inhabitants and pre-Roman remains". Scientific Reports. 10 (1): 10700. Bibcode:2020NatSR..1010700M. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-67445-0. PMC 7329865. PMID 32612271.

[Chiang_2018-7] Cite error: The named reference Chiang_2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Marcus_2020-8] Cite error: The named reference Marcus_2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Fernandes_2020-9] Fernandes DM, Mittnik A, Olalde I, Lazaridis I, Cheronet O, Rohland N, et al. (March 2020). "The spread of steppe and Iranian-related ancestry in the islands of the western Mediterranean". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 4 (3): 334–345. doi:10.1038/s41559-020-1102-0. PMC 7080320. PMID 32094539.

[10] «Sicily and Southern Italy were heavily colonized by Greeks beginning in the eight to ninth century B.C.. The demographic development of the Greek colonies in Southern Italy was remarkable, and in classical times this region was called Magna Graecia (Great Greece) because it probably surpassed in numbers the Greek population of the motherland.» Cavalli-Sforza L, Menozzi P, Piazza A (1994). The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton University Press. p. 278. ISBN 978-0-691-08750-4.

[Haak_2015-11] Cite error: The named reference Haak_2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[DiGaetano_2012-12] Cite error: The named reference DiGaetano_2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Price_2008-13] Price AL, Butler J, Patterson N, Capelli C, Pascali VL, Scarnicci F, et al. (January 2008). "Discerning the ancestry of European Americans in genetic association studies". PLOS Genetics. 4 (1): e236. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0030236. PMC 2211542. PMID 18208327.

[Peristera_2014-14] Cite error: The named reference Peristera_2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Fiorito_2016-15] Cite error: The named reference Fiorito_2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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