title: Genetic affinities of Ukrainians from the maternal perspective.
abstract: The area of what is now the Ukraine has been the arena of large-scale demographic processes that may have left their traces in the contemporary gene pool of Ukrainians. In this study, we present new mitochondrial DNA data for 607 Ukrainians (hypervariable segment I sequences and coding region polymorphisms). To study the maternal affinities of Ukrainians at the level of separate mitochondrial haplotypes, we apply an original technique, the haplotype co-occurrence analysis. About 20% of the Ukrainian maternal gene pool is represented by lineages highly specific to Ukrainians, but is scarcely found in other populations. About 9% of Ukrainian mtDNA lineages are typical for peoples of the Volga region. We also identified minor gene pool strata (1.6-3.3%), each of which is common in Lithuanians, Estonians, Saami, Nenets, Cornish, and the populations of the North Caucasus.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Medical Genetics, RAMS, Moscow, Russia, 115478.
authors.forename: Andrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pshenichnov
authors.forename: Oleg
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Balanovsky
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Utevska
authors.forename: Ene
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Metspalu
authors.forename: Valery
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zaporozhchenko
authors.forename: Anastasia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agdzhoyan
authors.forename: Mikhail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Churnosov
authors.forename: Lyubov
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Atramentova
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Balanovska
mesh_terms: D000885:Anthropology, Physical; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D058974:Phylogeography; D014455:Ukraine; D044465:White People / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: ethnogenetics; gene geography; haplotype co-occurrence analysis; mitochondrial DNA; mtDNA