Standing at the gateway to Europe--the genetic structure of Western balkan populations based on autosomal and haploid markers

PLoS One. 2014 Aug 22;9(8):e105090. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0105090. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Contemporary inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula belong to several ethnic groups of diverse cultural background. In this study, three ethnic groups from Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bosniacs, Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs - as well as the populations of Serbians, Croatians, Macedonians from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegrins and Kosovars have been characterized for the genetic variation of 660 000 genome-wide autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms and for haploid markers. New autosomal data of the 70 individuals together with previously published data of 20 individuals from the populations of the Western Balkan region in a context of 695 samples of global range have been analysed. Comparison of the variation data of autosomal and haploid lineages of the studied Western Balkan populations reveals a concordance of the data in both sets and the genetic uniformity of the studied populations, especially of Western South-Slavic speakers. The genetic variation of Western Balkan populations reveals the continuity between the Middle East and Europe via the Balkan region and supports the scenario that one of the major routes of ancient gene flows and admixture went through the Balkan Peninsula.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Balkan Peninsula
  • Chromosomes, Human*
  • Chromosomes, Human, Y
  • Cluster Analysis
  • DNA, Mitochondrial
  • Ethnicity / genetics*
  • Evolution, Molecular
  • Genetic Markers*
  • Genetic Variation
  • Genetics, Population*
  • Geography
  • Haplotypes*
  • Humans
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide

Substances

  • DNA, Mitochondrial
  • Genetic Markers

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the European Union European Regional Development Fund through the Centre of Excellence in Genomics, by the Estonian Biocentre (EBC) and the University of Tartu, by the European Commission grant 205419 ECOGENE to the EBC, and by the Estonian Basic Research Grant SF 0270177s08. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.