Genes reveal traces of common recent demographic history for most of the Uralic-speaking populations

• DOI: 10.1186/s13059-018-1522-1
• Publication Date: 2018-09-21T11:59:42Z
• Authors: Kristiina Tambets; Bayazit Yunusbayev; Georgi Hudjashov; Anne-Mai Ilumäe; Siiri Rootsi; Terhi Honkola; Outi Vesakoski; Quentin Atkinson; Pontus Skoglund; Alena Kushniarevich; Sergey Litvinov; Maere Reidla; Ene Metspalu; Lehti Saag; Timo Rantanen; Monika Karmin; Jüri Parik; Sergey I. Zhadanov; Marina Gubina; Larisa D. Damba; Marina Bermisheva; Tuuli Reisberg; Khadizhat Dibirova; Irina Evseeva; Mari Nelis; Janis Klovins; Andres Metspalu; Tõnu Esko; Oleg Balanovsky; Elena Balanovska; Elza K. Khusnutdi...; Ludmila P. Osipova; Mikhail Voevoda; Richard Villems; Toomas Kivisild; Mait Metspalu
• Keywords: Human genetics; Genome Biology; Demographic history

The genetic origins of Uralic speakers from across a vast territory in the temperate zone North Eurasia have remained elusive. Previous studies shown contrasting proportions Eastern and Western Eurasian ancestry their mitochondrial Y chromosomal gene pools. While maternal lineages reflect by large geographic background given Uralic-speaking population, frequency chromosomes origin is distinctively high among European speakers. autosomal variation speakers, however, has not yet been studied comprehensively. Here, we present genome-wide analysis 15 populations which cover all main groups linguistic family. We show that contemporary are genetically very similar to local geographical neighbours. However, when studying relationships geographically distant populations, find most some neighbours share component possibly Siberian origin. Additionally, significantly more genomic segments identity-by-descent with each other than equidistant languages. correlated lexical distances suggest co-dispersion genes Yet, do long-range ties between Estonians Hungarians sisters would distinguish them non-Uralic-speaking distinct likely origin, suggests spread languages involved at least demic component.