Genetic studies on Russians
Genetic studies show that Russians are closest to Baltic people such as Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, but also Finns. Russians from central and southern European regions also show high affinity towards other Slavic populations, such as Poles, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Slovaks, Slovenes, however not to Southern Slavs, such as Serbs or Bulgarians, who have noteworthy Paleo-Balkan ancestry.[1] Some ethnographers, like Dmitry Zelenin, affirm that southern Russians are more similar to Belarusians and to Ukrainians than southern Russians are to northern Russians. Russians in some parts of northwestern Russia share noteworthy genetic similarities with Baltic Finnic peoples,[1][2] who lived in modern northwestern-central Russia, and were partly assimilated by East Slavs when they migrated northeastwards.
Y-DNA
Russians show the y-DNA R1a with frequencies ranging from 33.4% in North Russia to 49% in rest of Russia.[1][3][4] R-M17 (and sometimes alternatively defined as R-M198), is particularly common in a large region extending from South Asia and Southern Siberia to Central Europe and Scandinavia but concentrated in eastern Europe and India.(Underhill 2009) [5][6] The percentages of Y-chromosome markers vary in ethnic Russian populations by latitude and region. Another important y-DNA haplogroup is N1c. N1c, which is found only in a few countries in Europe (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Russia), is a subgroup of the haplogroup N, distributed widely in Siberia and Northern Asia, and arrived to Europe during the early Iron Age by Siberian geneflow from Southeast Asia via Northeast Asia.[7]
The top four Y-DNA haplogroups among the sample of 1228 Russians are:[1]
- Haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA) – 19.8% to 62.7%, with an average of 46.7%
- Haplogroup I (Y-DNA) – 0% to 26.8%, with an average of 17.6% (All regions), and 23.5% (Central and South Russia)
- Haplogroup N (Y-DNA) – 5.4% to 53.7%, with averages of 21.6% (All regions), and 10% (Central and South Russia)
- Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA) – 0% to 14%, with an average of 5.8%
Eight Y chromosome haplogroup subclades, including R1a, N3, I1b, R1b, I1a, J2, N2, and E3b all together, account for >95% of the total Russian Y chromosomal pool. Of the 1228 samples, 11/1228 (0.9%) were classified up to the root level of haplogroups F and K. Only 9/1228 samples (0.7%) fell into haplogroups C, Q, and R2 which are specific to East and South Asian populations.[1]
mtDNA
The mitochondrial gene pool of Russians are represented by mtDNA types belonging to typical West Eurasian groups. East Eurasian admixture was shown to be minimal and existed in low frequencies in the form of Haplogroup M.[8][9] The same studies indicate West Eurasian haplogroups present at a frequency of 97.8% and 98.5% among a sample of 325 and 201 Russians respectively.[8][9]
A recent study, while precising that "the genetic distances from the Russians to the European language groups indicate that the gene pool of present-day Russians bears the influence of Slavic, Baltic, Finnic and, to a lesser extent, Germanic groups, as well as Iranian and Turkic groups", uphold the traditionally held genetic differentiation between Northern and Southern Russians, with the decisive ethnic element being the Finnic one, more important in the north, the southern population having substantial - generally unacknowledged in historical debates about Russian ethnogenesis - Germanic influence.[10]
Autosomal DNA
Autosomally, Russians are most similar to populations in Northeastern and Eastern Europe, but display some noteworthy internal genetic diversity. Northern Russians showed significant genetic affinity with Finns and Vepsians. Overall, Russians show evidence for long-term contact with various Uralic peoples and assimilation. East Asian like ancestry among Russians was found between ~5% to ~12%, with a higher frequency among Northern Russians. This East Asian affinity is argued to be mostly derived from long-term contacts with Uralic-speakers, although the authors mention that East Asian-related ancestry is found in most Europeans at low frequency.[11]
A 2020 paper found that Russians received geneflow from minority groups, such as Uralic and Turkic peoples. Russians, compared to other Europeans, show higher affinity towards Finns and other Uralic-speakers from Northeastern Europe and Siberia.[12]
The East Asian/Siberian related ancestry found among Russians (and other Northeastern Europeans), range between ~5% to ~12%, and is best represented by the North Asian Nganasan people, a Samoyedic people. East Asian/Siberian like ancestry arrived in Northeast Europe during the early Iron Age, linked to the arrival of Uralic languages. The Ngnasans were found to be the best modern fit source population, for this ancient migration event. While the East Asian/Siberian like Nganasan component peaks among Sámi people, it is widely distributed among various European groups, notably Russians, Finns and Estonians, less among other European groups. The remainder ancestry components of Russians is shared with other European peoples.[13][14][15]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e Balanovsky, O; Rootsi, S; Pshenichnov, A; et al. (January 2008). "Two sources of the Russian patrilineal heritage in their Eurasian context". American Journal of Human Genetics. 82 (1): 236–50. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.09.019. PMC 2253976. PMID 18179905.
- ^ "Новости NEWSru.com :: Ученые завершили масштабное исследование генофонда русского народа (Фотороботы)". Newsru.com. 28 September 2005. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
- ^ Rosser et al. (2000)
- ^ Tambets et al. (2004).
- ^ Semino et al. (2000), "The Genetic Legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in Extant Europeans: A Y Chromosome Perspective"
- ^ Luca, F.; Giacomo, F. Di; Benincasa, T.; et al. (2007). "Y-Chromosomal Variation in the Czech Republic" (PDF). American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 132 (1): 132–139. doi:10.1002/ajpa.20500. hdl:2108/35058. PMID 17078035.
- ^ Rootsi, Siiri; Zhivotovsky, Lev A; Baldovič, Marian; Kayser, Manfred; Kutuev, Ildus A; Khusainova, Rita; Bermisheva, Marina A; Gubina, Marina; Fedorova, Sardana A; Ilumäe, Anne-Mai; Khusnutdinova, Elza K; Voevoda, Mikhail I; Osipova, Ludmila P; Stoneking, Mark; Lin, Alice A; Ferak, Vladimir; Parik, Jüri; Kivisild, Toomas; Underhill, Peter A; Villems, Richard (2007). "A counter-clockwise northern route of the Y-chromosome haplogroup N from Southeast Asia towards Europe". European Journal of Human Genetics. 15 (2): 204–211. doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201748. ISSN 1018-4813. PMID 17149388.
- ^ a b Malyarchuk, BA; Grzybowski, T; Derenko, MV; Czarny, J; Woźniak, M; Miścicka-Sliwka, D (April 2002). "Mitochondrial DNA variability in Poles and Russians" (PDF). Annals of Human Genetics. 66 (4): 261–283. doi:10.1046/j.1469-1809.2002.00116.x. PMID 12418968. S2CID 221424344. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-17. Retrieved 2016-05-14.
- ^ a b Malyarchuk, B; Derenko, M; Grzybowski, T; et al. (December 2004). "Differentiation of Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosomes in Russian Populations" (PDF). Human Biology. 76 (6): 877–900. doi:10.1353/hub.2005.0021. PMID 15974299. S2CID 17385503. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-25. Retrieved 2016-05-14.
- ^ Morozova, I; Evsyukov, A; Kon'Kov, A; Grosheva, A; Zhukova, O; Rychkov, S (March 2012). "Russian ethnic history inferred from mitochondrial DNA diversity". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 147 (3): 341–351. doi:10.1002/ajpa.21649. PMID 22183855.
- ^ Khrunin, Andrey V.; Khokhrin, Denis V.; Filippova, Irina N.; Esko, Tõnu; Nelis, Mari; Bebyakova, Natalia A.; Bolotova, Natalia L.; Klovins, Janis; Nikitina-Zake, Liene; Rehnström, Karola; Ripatti, Samuli (2013-03-07). "A Genome-Wide Analysis of Populations from European Russia Reveals a New Pole of Genetic Diversity in Northern Europe". PLOS ONE. 8 (3): e58552. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058552. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3591355. PMID 23505534.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ Zhernakova, Daria V.; Brukhin, Vladimir; Malov, Sergey; Oleksyk, Taras K.; Koepfli, Klaus Peter; Zhuk, Anna; Dobrynin, Pavel; Kliver, Sergei; Cherkasov, Nikolay; Tamazian, Gaik; Rotkevich, Mikhail (2020-01-01). "Genome-wide sequence analyses of ethnic populations across Russia". Genomics. 112 (1): 442–458. doi:10.1016/j.ygeno.2019.03.007. ISSN 0888-7543.
- ^ Saag, Lehti; Laneman, Margot; Varul, Liivi; Malve, Martin; Valk, Heiki; Razzak, Maria A.; Shirobokov, Ivan G.; Khartanovich, Valeri I.; Mikhaylova, Elena R.; Kushniarevich, Alena; Scheib, Christiana Lyn (2019-05-20). "The Arrival of Siberian Ancestry Connecting the Eastern Baltic to Uralic Speakers Further East". Current Biology : CB. 29 (10): 1701–1711.e16. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.026. ISSN 0960-9822. PMC 6544527. PMID 31080083.
- ^ Tambets, Kristiina; Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Hudjashov, Georgi; Ilumäe, Anne-Mai; Rootsi, Siiri; Honkola, Terhi; Vesakoski, Outi; Atkinson, Quentin; Skoglund, Pontus; Kushniarevich, Alena; Litvinov, Sergey (2018-09-21). "Genes reveal traces of common recent demographic history for most of the Uralic-speaking populations". Genome Biology. 19 (1): 139. doi:10.1186/s13059-018-1522-1. ISSN 1474-7596. PMC 6151024. PMID 30241495.
The qpGraph estimates of the contributions from the Siberian component show that it is the main ancestry component in the West Siberian Uralic speakers and constitutes up to one third of the genomes of modern VUR and the Saami (Fig. 6). It drops, however, to less than 10% in most of NE Europe, to 5% in Estonians and close to zero in Latvians and Lithuanians. Indeed, Estonians show an excess of shared derived alleles with Nganasans compared to Latvians [D-statistic of the form D(Yorubas, Nganasans; Estonians, Latvians) = − 0.00263 (± 0.0008); Z-score = − 3.0691)] and Lithuanians [D(Yorubas, Nganasans; Estonians, Lithuanians) = − 0.00426 (± 0.0009); Z-score = − 5.6638)]. Saami stand out from other NE European populations by drawing up to 30% of their autosomal ancestry from Asian genetic components (Fig. 3).
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ Lamnidis, Thiseas C.; Majander, Kerttu; Jeong, Choongwon; Salmela, Elina; Wessman, Anna; Moiseyev, Vyacheslav; Khartanovich, Valery; Balanovsky, Oleg; Ongyerth, Matthias; Weihmann, Antje; Sajantila, Antti (2018-11-27). "Ancient Fennoscandian genomes reveal origin and spread of Siberian ancestry in Europe". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 5018. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.5018L. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07483-5. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 6258758. PMID 30479341.
This model, however, does not fit well for present-day populations from north-eastern Europe such as Saami, Russians, Mordovians, Chuvash, Estonians, Hungarians, and Finns: they carry additional ancestry seen as increased allele sharing with modern East Asian populations1,3,9,10. Additionally, within the Bolshoy population, we observe the derived allele of rs3827760 in the EDAR gene, which is found in near-fixation in East Asian and Native American populations today, but is extremely rare elsewhere37, and has been linked to phenotypes related to tooth shape38 and hair morphology39 (Supplementary Data 2). To further test differential relatedness with Nganasan in European populations and in the ancient individuals in this study, we calculated f4(Mbuti, Nganasan; Lithuanian, Test) (Fig. 3). Consistent with f3-statistics above, all the ancient individuals and modern Finns, Saami, Mordovians and Russians show excess allele sharing with Nganasan when used as Test populations.