[East European gene pool and diseases in the rural population of European Russia].
New data on the association of the state of health and the disease incidence with the gene pool were obtained in the East European population. The second principal component (PC2.G, 11.4% of the total variance) of the geographic variation in the gene pool (100 alleles of 34 loci) showed a distinct latitudinal dependence corresponding to the natural zonality of Eastern Europe. This was also characteristic of the first principal component (PC1.M, 75.6% of the total variance) of the geographic variation in the disease incidence (i.e., the number of all new cases diagnosed in out-patient clinics per year) in the rural population. The disease incidence decreased from the south-southeast to the north-northwest in European Russia. The coefficient of the geographic pairwise correlation between PC2.G and PC1.M was r = 0.945; their specific correlation remained high (r = 0.864), even after a correction for the effects of age composition and heterozygosity. Thus, an insignificant variation in the gene pool was shown to significantly affect the geographic distribution of disease incidence in the East European population of Russia (eta 2 = 0.892). A correlation of mapped geographic distributions of PC1.M and PC2.G in the modern population with those of the principal components of the geographic variation of the late Paleolithic material culture in Eastern Europe was analyzed. The origin of the latitudinal zonality of the modern gene pool was dated back to the late Pleistocene-early Holocene. A conclusion was made that diseases that affected reproduction and lethality in the Paleolithic population still represent a mechanism of the gene pool's adaptation to the natural zonality of the environment. The latitudinal zonality of disease incidence, which was characteristic of the ancient population, is conserved in the today's population, owing to the gene pool.
Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. rychkov@vigg.ru
Iu G
IuG
Rychkov
O V
OV
Zhukova
E V
EV
Ogryzko
Iu V
IuV
Shneĭder
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005061:Europe, Eastern; D005260:Female; D005788:Gene Pool; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012423:Rural Health; D012426:Russia
Vostochnoevropeĭskiĭ genofond i bolezni sel'skogo naseleniia evropeĭskoĭ chasti Rossii.