Diversity of Croatian paternal lineages testifies about their largely Palaeolithic European ancestry, Slavic expansion and possibly a minor Neolithic influx from the Near East (original) (raw)

2002

Abstract

A battery of biallelic and microsatellite markers was typed in 457 Croatian Y chromosomes. Analysis of biallelic markers allowed to characterize nine different haplogroups. European-specific haplogroup I was found at the highest frequency (48.4%), followed by haplogroup R1a (24.7%). High frequency of M170 mutation, its microsatellite diversity as well as the finding that its frequency is significantly higher in three southern Adriatic islands compared to the mainland population and the northern island of Krk, makes it likely that the Adriatic coast can be considered as a geographic origin for this mutation. Its higher frequency in the southern islands population is in contrast to higher frequency of group R1a chromosomes in the northern island of Krk and in the mainland population. As Croats belong to a Slavic linguistic family, R1a speaks in favor of possible Slavic genetic impact into their Y-chromosomal pool. Indeed, this haplogroup, while frequently found in Slavic populations (e.g. in Poles, Ukrainians and Russians), is low in Croatian non-Slavic neighbors like Albanians and Greeks. This finding is in concordance with currently favored view that the spread of variants of the European mtDNA and Y chromosome pool is explained rather by geographic proximity than by linguistic affinity. On the other hand, haplogroups E, G, and J that have been suggested by other authors to be related to the spread of farming, encompass a minor part of the Croatian paternal lineages. Their summary frequency (9%) corresponds to that observed among the western European populations – an observation that does not support an assumption that the Adriatic region received a more sizable share of putative Neolithic demic diffusion from the Near East. In sum, clear and meaningful in terms of ethnogenesis pattern and gradients of the distribution of Y chromosome variants in Croatia, uniparentally inherited genetic loci prove their usefulness in understanding of the demographic history of human populations.

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