The Seven Daughters of Eve

Last updated

The Seven Daughters of Eve [1] is a 2001 semi-fictional book by Bryan Sykes that presents the science of human origin in Africa and their dispersion to a general audience. [2] Sykes explains the principles of genetics and human evolution, the particularities of mitochondrial DNA, and analyses of ancient DNA to genetically link modern humans to prehistoric ancestors.

Contents

Following the developments of mitochondrial genetics, Sykes traces back human migrations, discusses the "out of Africa theory" and casts serious doubt upon Thor Heyerdahl's theory of the Peruvian origin of the Polynesians, which opposed the theory of their origin in Indonesia. He also describes the use of mitochondrial DNA in identifying the remains of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, and in assessing the genetic makeup of modern Europe.

The title of the book comes from one of the principal achievements of mitochondrial genetics, which is the classification of all modern Europeans into seven groups, the mitochondrial haplogroups . Each haplogroup is defined by a set of characteristic mutations on the mitochondrial genome, and can be traced along a person's maternal line to a specific prehistoric woman. Sykes refers to these women as "clan mothers", though these women did not all live concurrently. All these women in turn shared a common maternal ancestor, the Mitochondrial Eve.

The last third of the book is spent on a series of fictional narratives, written by Sykes, describing his creative guesses about the lives of each of these seven "clan mothers". This latter half generally met with mixed reviews in comparison with the first part. [2]

Mitochondrial haplogroups in The Seven Daughters of Eve

The seven "clan mothers" mentioned by Sykes each correspond to one (or more) human mitochondrial haplogroups.

Phylogenetic tree of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups

  Mitochondrial Eve (L)  
L0 L1–6 
L1 L2   L3    L4 L5 L6
M N  
CZ D E G Q   O A S R   I W X Y
C Z B F R0   pre-JT   P   U
HV JT K
H V J T

Additional daughters

Sykes wrote in the book that there were seven major mitochondrial lineages for modern Europeans, though he subsequently wrote that with the additional data from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, Ulrike (see below) could have been promoted to be the eighth clan mother for Europe. [5]

Others have put the number at 10 [6] or 12. [7] These additional "daughters" generally include haplogroups I, M and W. [8] For example, a 2004 paper re-mapped European haplogroups as H, J, K, N1, T, U4, U5, V, X and W. [6] Richards, Macaulay, Torroni and Bandelt include I, W and N1b as well as Sykes' '7 daughters' within their 2002 pan-European survey (but - illustrating how complex the question can be - also separate out pre-V, HV1 and pre-HV1, and separate out U to include U1, U2, U3, U4 and U7 as well as U5). [9]

Likewise, Sykes has invented names for an additional 29 "clan mothers" worldwide (of which four were native American, nine Japanese [10] and 12 were from Africa [11] ), each corresponding to a different haplogroup identified by geneticists: "Fufei, Ina, Aiyana/Ai, Yumi, Nene, Naomi, Una, Uta, Ulrike, Uma, Ulla, Ulaana, Lara, Lamia, Lalamika, Latasha, Malaxshmi, Emiko, Gaia, Chochmingwu/Chie, Djigonasee/Sachi, Makeda, Lingaire, Lubaya, Limber, Lila, Lungile, Latifa and Layla." [12]

Reviews

Howy Jacobs in Nature labelled the book as semi-fictional with the majority of the information "the accounts of the imagined lives" of human ancestors. He commented: "All this made me feel that I was reading someone's school project, with influences from The Flintstones cartoon series, rather than a treatise by a leading academic." [2] Robert Kanigel in The New York Times asserted that making imaginary names and identities for the human ancestors is inappropriate as "neither solid theorizing nor fully realized fiction." He wrote: "Sykes's book is so fine, the science so well explained, the controversies so gripping, that it is painful to report that 200 pages into it the author performs a literary experiment that flops." [13]

Robin McKie in The Guardian concurred that the first part of the book is "an engrossing, bubbly read, a boy's own adventure", while the latter stories "try to pass off fiction as science." [14] Erika Hagelberg in Heredity said the book "aimed at the punter" and does not picture an "accurate account of an inspiring field of science;" commenting: "the tedious narrations of the lives of the clan mothers, lack of bibliography, and casual treatment of facts, rules the book out of the category of serious popular science." [15]

Editions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitochondrial Eve</span> Matrilineal most recent common ancestor of all living humans

In human genetics, the Mitochondrial Eve is the matrilineal most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of all living humans. In other words, she is defined as the most recent woman from whom all living humans descend in an unbroken line purely through their mothers and through the mothers of those mothers, back until all lines converge on one woman.

In human genetics, the Y-chromosomal most recent common ancestor is the patrilineal most recent common ancestor (MRCA) from whom all currently living humans are descended. He is the most recent male from whom all living humans are descended through an unbroken line of their male ancestors. The term Y-MRCA reflects the fact that the Y chromosomes of all currently living human males are directly derived from the Y chromosome of this remote ancestor. The analogous concept of the matrilineal most recent common ancestor is known as "Mitochondrial Eve", the most recent woman from whom all living humans are descended matrilineally. As with "Mitochondrial Eve", the title of "Y-chromosomal Adam" is not permanently fixed to a single individual, but can advance over the course of human history as paternal lineages become extinct.

Bryan Clifford Sykes was a British geneticist and science writer who was a Fellow of Wolfson College and Emeritus Professor of human genetics at the University of Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haplogroup X (mtDNA)</span> Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup

Haplogroup X is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. It is found in America, Europe, Western Asia, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa.

Haplogroup K, formerly Haplogroup UK, is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. It is defined by the HVR1 mutations 16224C and 16311C. It is now known that K is a subclade of U8.

Haplogroup J is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. The clade derives from the haplogroup JT, which also gave rise to haplogroup T. Within the field of medical genetics, certain polymorphisms specific to haplogroup J have been associated with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy.

Haplogroup T is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. It is believed to have originated around 25,100 years ago in the Near East.

Haplogroup V is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. The clade is believed to have originated over 14,000 years ago in Southern Europe.

Haplogroup U is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup (mtDNA). The clade arose from haplogroup R, likely during the early Upper Paleolithic. Its various subclades are found widely distributed across Northern and Eastern Europe, Central, Western and South Asia, as well as North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Canary Islands.

Haplogroup I is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. It is believed to have originated about 21,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) period in West Asia. The haplogroup is unusual in that it is now widely distributed geographically, but is common in only a few small areas of East Africa, West Asia and Europe. It is especially common among the El Molo and Rendille peoples of Kenya, various regions of Iran, the Lemko people of Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine, the island of Krk in Croatia, the department of Finistère in France and some parts of Scotland and Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup</span> Haplogroup defined by differences in human mitochondrial DNA

In human genetics, a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup is a haplogroup defined by differences in human mitochondrial DNA. Haplogroups are used to represent the major branch points on the mitochondrial phylogenetic tree. Understanding the evolutionary path of the female lineage has helped population geneticists trace the matrilineal inheritance of modern humans back to human origins in Africa and the subsequent spread around the globe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haplogroup Y (mtDNA)</span> Human mitochondrial DNA grouping indicating common ancestry

In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup Y is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup.

In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup G is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup.

Genetic studies on Sami is the genetic research that have been carried out on the Sami people. The Sami languages belong to the Uralic languages family of Eurasia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MT-ND3</span> Mitochondrial protein-coding gene whose product is involved in the respiratory chain

MT-ND3 is a gene of the mitochondrial genome coding for the NADH dehydrogenase 3 (ND3) protein. The ND3 protein is a subunit of NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone), which is located in the mitochondrial inner membrane and is the largest of the five complexes of the electron transport chain. Variants of MT-ND3 are associated with Mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS), Leigh's syndrome (LS) and Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MT-CYB</span> A mitochondrial protein-coding gene whose product is involved in the respiratory chain

Cytochrome b is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MT-CYB gene. Its gene product is a subunit of the respiratory chain protein ubiquinol–cytochrome c reductase, which consists of the products of one mitochondrially encoded gene, MT-CYB, and ten nuclear genes—UQCRC1, UQCRC2, CYC1, UQCRFS1, UQCRB, "11kDa protein", UQCRH, Rieske protein presequence, "cyt c1 associated protein", and Rieske-associated protein.

Maghrebis or Maghrebians is a modern Arabic term meaning "Westerners", mainly referring to the western part of the Arab world and North Africa. Maghrebis are predominantly of Arab and Berber or mixed Arab-Berber origins.

Haplogroup H is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. The clade is believed to have originated in Southwest Asia, near present day Syria, around 20,000 to 25,000 years ago. Mitochondrial haplogroup H is today predominantly found in Europe, and is believed to have evolved before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). It first expanded in the northern Near East and Southern Caucasus soon, and later migrations from Iberia suggest that the clade reached Europe before the Last Glacial Maximum. The haplogroup has also spread to parts of Africa, Siberia and inner Asia. Today, around 40% of all maternal lineages in Europe belong to haplogroup H.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macro-haplogroup L (mtDNA)</span>

In human mitochondrial genetics, L is the mitochondrial DNA macro-haplogroup that is at the root of the anatomically modern human mtDNA phylogenetic tree. As such, it represents the most ancestral mitochondrial lineage of all currently living modern humans, also dubbed "Mitochondrial Eve".

The genetic history of North Africa has been heavily influenced by geography. The Sahara desert to the south and the Mediterranean Sea to the North were important barriers to gene flow from sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Europe in prehistoric times. However, North Africa is connected to Western Asia via the Isthmus of Suez and the Sinai peninsula, while at the Straits of Gibraltar North Africa and Europe are separated by only 15 km (9 mi), similarly Malta, Sicily, Canary Islands, and Crete are close to the coasts of North Africa.

References

  1. ↑ Sykes, Bryan (July 2001). The Seven Daughters of Eve. W.W.Norton & Company Inc. (320 pages). ISBN   978-0-393-02018-2 . Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Jacobs, Howy (2001). "Reading the history of humanity". Nature. 413 (6853): 254. doi: 10.1038/35095105 .
  3. ↑ Maca-Meyer, N.; P. Sánchez-Velasco; C. Flores; J.M. Larruga; A.M. González; A. Oterino; F. Leyva-Cobián (31 March 2003). "Y Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Characterization of Pasiegos, a Human Isolate from Cantabria (Spain)" (PDF). Annals of Human Genetics. 67 (Pt 4): 329–339. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.584.4253 . doi:10.1046/j.1469-1809.2003.00045.x. PMID   12914567. S2CID   40355653 . Retrieved 2012-08-08.
  4. ↑ Max Ingman and Ulf Gyllensten (2007). "A recent genetic link between Sami and the Volga-Ural region of Russia". European Journal of Human Genetics. 15 (1): 115–120. doi: 10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201712 . PMID   16985502.
  5. ↑ Sykes, Brian, Blood of the Isles (Bantam, 2006) pages 118-119
  6. 1 2 Loogvali, E. -L. (2004). "Disuniting Uniformity: A Pied Cladistic Canvas of mtDNA Haplogroup H in Eurasia". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 21 (11): 2012–21. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msh209 . PMID   15254257.
  7. ↑ Achilli, A.; Rengo, C.; Magri, C.; Battaglia, V.; Olivieri, A.; Scozzari, R.; Cruciani, F.; Zeviani, M.; Briem, E.; Carelli, V.; Moral, P.; Dugoujon, J. M.; Roostalu, U.; Loogväli, E. L.; Kivisild, T.; Bandelt, H. J. R.; Richards, M.; Villems, R.; Santachiara-Benerecetti, A. S.; Semino, O.; Torroni, A. (2004). "The Molecular Dissection of mtDNA Haplogroup H Confirms That the Franco-Cantabrian Glacial Refuge Was a Major Source for the European Gene Pool". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 75 (5): 910–8. doi:10.1086/425590. PMC   1182122 . PMID   15382008.
  8. ↑ Liddle, James W. (18 May 2005) mtDNA (Mitochondria) Tests Interpretation Team Liddle et al, Family Tree DNA group, Retrieved 13 November 2014
  9. ↑ Richards, Martin; Macaulay, Vincent; Torroni, Antonio; Bandelt, Hans-Jürgen (November 2002). "In Search of Geographical Patterns in European Mitochondrial DNA". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 71 (5): 1168–1174. doi:10.1086/342930. PMC   385092 . PMID   12355353.
  10. ↑ Japanese women seek their ancestral roots in Oxford Archived October 3, 2006, at the Wayback Machine by Tessa Holland, 25 June 2006, Kyodo News
  11. ↑ Lane, Megan (2005-06-03). "Extreme genealogy". BBC News. Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  12. ↑ Maternal Clan names, Oxford Ancestors web page, Retrieved 16 January 2020
  13. ↑ Kanigel, Robert (2001-07-29). "Xenia, Paleolithic Princess". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-10-15.
  14. ↑ McKie, Robin (2001-05-27). "Observer review: The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes". the Guardian. Retrieved 2021-10-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ↑ Hagelberg, E. (2002). "The Seven Daughters of Eve". Heredity. 89 (1): 77. doi: 10.1038/sj.hdy.6800084 . ISSN   1365-2540.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.