title: Paternal and maternal lineages in the Balkans show a homogeneous landscape over linguistic barriers, except for the isolated Aromuns.
abstract: The Balkan Peninsula is a complex cultural mosaic comprising populations speaking languages from several branches of the Indo-European family and Altaic, as well as culturally-defined minorities such as the Aromuns who speak a Romance language. The current cultural and linguistic landscape is a palimpsest in which different peoples have contributed their cultures in a historical succession. We have sought to find any evidence of genetic stratification related to those cultural layers by typing both mtDNA and Y chromosomes, in Albanians, Romanians, Macedonians, Greeks, and five Aromun populations. We have paid special attention to the Aromuns, and sought to test genetically various hypotheses on their origins. MtDNA and Y-chromosome haplogroup frequencies in the Balkans were found to be similar to those elsewhere in Europe. MtDNA sequences and Y-chromosome STR haplotypes revealed decreased variation in some Aromun populations. Variation within Aromun populations was the primary source of genetic differentiation. Y-chromosome haplotypes tended to be shared across Aromuns, but not across non-Aromun populations. These results point to a possible common origin of the Aromuns, with drift acting to differentiate the separate Aromun communities. The homogeneity of Balkan populations prevented testing for the origin of the Aromuns, although a significant Roman contribution can be ruled out.
authors.affiliation: Unitat de Biologia Evolutiva, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bosch
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Calafell
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: González-Neira
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Flaiz
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mateu
authors.forename: H-G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Scheil
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huckenbeck
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Efremovska
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mikerezi
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Xirotiris
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Grasa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Comas
mesh_terms: D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005061:Europe, Eastern; D040961:Genetic Drift; D005819:Genetic Markers; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D005819:Genetic Markers