Genetic Heritage of the Balto-Slavic Speaking Populations: A Synthesis of Autosomal, Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosomal Data.
The Slavic branch of the Balto-Slavic sub-family of Indo-European languages underwent rapid divergence as a result of the spatial expansion of its speakers from Central-East Europe, in early medieval times. This expansion-mainly to East Europe and the northern Balkans-resulted in the incorporation of genetic components from numerous autochthonous populations into the Slavic gene pools. Here, we characterize genetic variation in all extant ethnic groups speaking Balto-Slavic languages by analyzing mitochondrial DNA (n = 6,876), Y-chromosomes (n = 6,079) and genome-wide SNP profiles (n = 296), within the context of other European populations. We also reassess the phylogeny of Slavic languages within the Balto-Slavic branch of Indo-European. We find that genetic distances among Balto-Slavic populations, based on autosomal and Y-chromosomal loci, show a high correlation (0.9) both with each other and with geography, but a slightly lower correlation (0.7) with mitochondrial DNA and linguistic affiliation. The data suggest that genetic diversity of the present-day Slavs was predominantly shaped in situ, and we detect two different substrata: 'central-east European' for West and East Slavs, and 'south-east European' for South Slavs. A pattern of distribution of segments identical by descent between groups of East-West and South Slavs suggests shared ancestry or a modest gene flow between those two groups, which might derive from the historic spread of Slavic people.
Evolutionary Biology Group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia; Institute of Genetics and Cytology, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus.
Alena
A
Kushniarevich
Department of Genetics and Cytology, Karazin Kharkiv National University, Kharkіv, Ukraine; Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Olga
O
Utevska
Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Marina
M
Chuhryaeva
Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Anastasia
A
Agdzhoyan
Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Khadizhat
K
Dibirova
Department of Human and Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Ingrida
I
Uktveryte
Institute of Mathematical Statistics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Märt
M
Möls
Center for Genomics and Transcriptomics (CeGaT GmbH), Tübingen, Deutschland; Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Lejla
L
Mulahasanovic
Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Andrey
A
Pshenichnov
Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Svetlana
S
Frolova
Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Andrey
A
Shanko
Evolutionary Biology Group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia; Department of Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Ene
E
Metspalu
Evolutionary Biology Group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia; Department of Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Maere
M
Reidla
Evolutionary Biology Group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia.
Kristiina
K
Tambets
Evolutionary Biology Group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia; Department of Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Erika
E
Tamm
Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
Sergey
S
Koshel
Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Valery
V
Zaporozhchenko
Department of Genetics and Cytology, Karazin Kharkiv National University, Kharkіv, Ukraine.
Lubov
L
Atramentova
Department of Human and Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Vaidutis
V
Kučinskas
Institute of Genetics and Cytology, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus.
Oleg
O
Davydenko
Institute of History, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus.
Olga
O
Goncharova
Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Northern State Medical University, Arkhangel, Russia.
Irina
I
Evseeva
Belgorod State University, Belgorod, Russia.
Michail
M
Churnosov
Kuban State Medical University, Krasnodar, Russia.
Elvira
E
Pocheshchova
Evolutionary Biology Group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia; Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Ufa Research Centre, RAS, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia.
Bayazit
B
Yunusbayev
Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Ufa Research Centre, RAS, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia; Department of Genetics and Fundamental Medicine of Bashkir State University, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia.
Elza
E
Khusnutdinova
International Burch University, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb, Croatia.
Damir
D
Marjanović
Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb, Croatia.
Pavao
P
Rudan
Evolutionary Biology Group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia.
Siiri
S
Rootsi
Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Nick
N
Yankovsky
Musée de l'Homme, Paris, France.
Phillip
P
Endicott
Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia.
Alexei
A
Kassian
Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Anna
A
Dybo
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambs, United Kingdom.
Chris
C
Tyler-Smith
Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Elena
E
Balanovska
Evolutionary Biology Group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia.
Mait
M
Metspalu
Evolutionary Biology Group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia; Department of Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia; Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Toomas
T
Kivisild
Evolutionary Biology Group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia; Department of Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia; Estonian Academy of Sciences, Tallinn, Estonia.
Richard
R
Villems
Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Oleg
O
Balanovsky
D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y / Q000235:genetics*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D005060:Europe; D005788:Gene Pool; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics*
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial