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The Archaeogenetic Lab

Laboratory of the archaeogenetic team is located at the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and focuses primarily on the population history of Africa and Arabia. The main topics are evolution, migration of anatomically modern people, and consequent influence of subsistence strategies on the genetic structure and health of individual human populations. Basically, we try to explore genetic history of number of regions in the world, based on specific historical events. For example, it is widely known, that Holocene climatic changes and optimums, in addition to mutual migration, allowed also the expansion of new life strategies. One of the most important - Neolithic transition (transition to agricultural and sedentary lifestyles) has caused the fixation of newly emerging alleles that can be detected by genetic methods specialized in non-recombinant parts of the human genome, such as mitochondrial DNA or NRY, as well as specific nuclear markers.

The research of these genetic fingerprints (e.g. changes in enzymatic activities as a result of adaptation to agriculture in different regions of the world) spans the boundaries between traditional categories of scientific work in humanities and natural sciences. The overlap of elemental research of the genetic variability, which is conditioned by cultural and historical factors, continues to lead to promising research directions such as evolutionary medicine or pharmacogenetics, offering students new opportunities in multiple disciplines.

Lab Team

Head of the Lab:
prof. Mgr. Viktor Černý, Dr.

PhD students:
Mame Yoro Diallo, M.Sc. 
Mgr. Iva Kulichová
Mgr. Eliška Podgorná

Pregradual students:
Bc. Kristýna Adámková
Bc. Tereza Holoubková
Bc. Lívia Jurišová

Cooperation

Mgr. Martina Čížková, Ph.D.
Mgr. Jana Nováčková, Ph.D. 
Mgr. Edita Priehodová, Ph.D.
Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague

Selected publications

Kleisner, K., Pokorný, Š., Čížková, M., Froment, A., & Černý, V. (2019). Nomadic pastoralists and sedentary farmers of the Sahel/Savannah Belt of Africa in the light of geometric morphometrics based on facial portraits. American journal of physical anthropology169(4), 632-645.

Nováčková, J., Čížková, M., Mokhtar, M. G., Duda, P., Stenzl, V., Tříska, P., Hofmanová, Z., & Černý, V. (2020). Subsistence strategy was the main factor driving population differentiation in the bidirectional corridor of the African Sahel. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 171(3), 496–508.

Černý, V., Kulichová, I., Poloni, E.S., Nunes, J.M., Pereira, L., Mayor,.A., & Sanchez-Mazas, A. (2018). Genetic history of the African Sahelian populations. HLA, 91(3), 153–166.

Kulichová, I., Fernandes, V., Deme, A., Nováčková, J., Stenzl, V., Novelletto, A., Pereira, L., & Černý, V. (2017). Internal diversification of non-Sub-Saharan haplogroups in Sahelian populations and the spread of pastoralism beyond the SaharaAmerican  Journal of Physical Anthropology, 164(2), 424–434.

Čížková, M., Munclinger, P., Diallo, M., Kulichová, I., Mokhtar, M., Deme, A., Pereira, L., & Černý, V. (2017). Genetic Structure of the Western and Eastern African Sahel/Savannah Belt and the Role of Nomadic Pastoralists as Inferred from the Variation of D-Loop Mitochondrial DNA Sequences. Human Biology, 89, 281–302.

Priehodová, E., Austerlitz, F., Čížková, M., Mokhtar, M.G., Poloni, E.S., & Černý, V. (2017). The historical spread of Arabian Pastoralists to the eastern African Sahel evidenced by the lactase persistence -13,915*G allele and mitochondrial DNA. American Journal of Human Biology,  29(3), e22950.

Čížková, M., Hofmanová, Z., Mokhtar, M.G., Janoušek, V., Diallo, I., Munclinger, P., & Černý, V. (2017). Alu insertion polymorphisms in the African Sahel and the origin of Fulani pastoralists. Annals of Human Biology,  44(6), 537–545.

Sahakyan, H., Hooshiar Kashani, B., Tamang, R., Kushniarevich, A., Francis, A., Costa, M.D., Pathak, A.K., Khachatryan, Z., Sharma, I., van Oven, M., Parik, J., Hovhannisyan, H., Metspalu, E., Pennarun, E., Karmin, M., Tamm, E., Tambets, K., Bahmanimehr, A., Reisberg, T., Reidla, M., Achilli, A., Olivieri, A., Gandini, F., Perego, U.A., Al-Zahery, N., Houshmand, M., Sanati, M.H., Soares, P., Rai, E., Šarac, J., Šarić, T., Sharma, V., Pereira, L., Fernandes, V., Černý, V., Farjadian, S., Singh, D.P., Azakli, H., Üstek, D., Ekomasova Trofimova, N., Kutuev, I., Litvinov, S., Bermisheva, M., Khusnutdinova, E.K., Rai, N., Singh, M., Singh, V.K., Reddy, A.G., Tolk, H.V., Cvjetan, S., Lauc, L.B., Rudan, P., Michalodimitrakis, E.N., Anagnou, N.P., Pappa, K.I., Golubenko, M.V., Orekhov, V., Borinskaya, S.A., Kaldma, K., Schauer, M.A., Simionescu, M., Gusar, V., Grechanina, E., Govindaraj, P., Voevoda, M., Damba, L., Sharma, S., Singh, L., Semino, O., Behar, D.M., Yepiskoposyan, L., Richards, M.B., Metspalu, M., Kivisild, T., Thangaraj, K., Endicott, P., Chaubey, G., Torroni, A., & Villems, R. (2017). Origin and spread of human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U7. Scietific Reports, 7, 46044, doi: 10.1038/srep46044.

Cerezo, M., Gusmão, L., Černý, V., Uddin, N., Syndercombe-Court, D., Gómez-Carballa, A., Göbel, T., Schneider, P.M., & Salas, A. (2016). Comprehensive Analysis of Pan-African Mitochondrial DNA Variation Provides New Insights into Continental Variation and Demography. Journal of Genetics and Genomics, 43, 133–143.

Černý, V., Čížková, M., Poloni, E.S., Al-Meeri, A. & Mulligan, C.J. (2016). Comprehensive view of the population history of Arabia as inferred by mtDNA variation. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 159(4), 607–16.

Triska, P., Soares, P., Patin, E., Fernandes, V., Černý, V., & Pereira, L. (2015). Extensive Admixture and Selective Pressure Across the Sahel Belt. Genome Biology and Evolution, 7(12), 3484–95. 

Podgorná, E., Diallo, I., Vangenot, C., Sanchez-Mazas, A., Sabbagh, A., Černý, V., & Poloni, E.S. (2015). Variation in NAT2 acetylation phenotypes is associated with differences in food‐producing subsistence modes and ecoregions in Africa. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 15:263, doi: 10.1186/s12862-015-0543-6.

Nováčková, J., Dreslerová, D., Černý, V., Poloni, E.S. (2015). The place of Slovakian paternal diversity in the clinal European landscape. Annals of Human Biology, 42(6), 511–522. 

Silva, M., Alshamali, F., Silva, P., Carrilho, C., Mandlate, F., Trovoada, M.-J., Černý, V., Pereira, L., & Soares, P. (2015). 60,000 years of interactions between Central and Eastern Africa documented by major African mitochondrial haplogroup L2. Scientific Reports , 5, http://www.nature.com/articles/srep12526.

Fernandes, V., Triska, P., Pereira, J.B., Alshamali, F., Rito, T., Machado, A., Fajkošová, Z., Cavadas, B., Černý, V., Soares, P., Richards, M.B., & Pereira, L. (2015). Genetic Stratigraphy of Key Demographic Events in Arabia. PLoS ONE, 10(3), e0118625. 

Priehodová, E., Abdelsawy, A., Heyer, E., & Černý, V. (2014). Lactase persistence variants in Arabia and in African Arabs. Human Biology, 86(1), 7–18.

Černý, V., & Pereira, L. (2014). Archaeogenetics of Africa and of the African hunter-gatherers. In. Cummings, V., Jordan, P., & Zvelebil, M. (Eds). The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-gatherers. Oxford. Oxford University Press, pp. 1143–1162.

Rito, T., Richards, M.B., Fernandes, V., Alshamali, F., Černý, V., Pereira, L., & Soares, P. (2013). The First Modern Human Dispersals across Africa. PLoS ONE , 8 (11), e80031.

Podgorná, E., Soares, P., Pereira, L., & Černý, V. (2013). The Genetic Impact of the Lake Chad Basin Population in North Africa as Documented by Mitochondrial Diversity and Internal Variation of the L3e5 Haplogroup. Annals of Human Genetics, 77, 513–523. 

Kujanová, N., & Černý, V. (2013). Anthropology of El-Hayz: Morphological and Genetic Contributions to the Egyptian Western Desert Population History. In. Dospěl, M., & Suková, L. (Ed.): Bahriya Oasis. Recent Research into the Past of an Egyptian Oasis. Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, pp. 131–148.

Rose, J.I., Černý, V., & Bayoumi, R. (2013). Tabula rasa or refugia? Using genetic data to assess the peopling of Arabia. Arabian archaeology and epigraphy, 24(1), 95–101.

Bučková, J., Černý, V., & Novelletto, A. (2013). Multiple and Differentiated Contributions to the Male Gene Pool of Pastoral and Farmer Populations of the African Sahel. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 151(1), 10–21.

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