engleski

"Out of Balkan" - genetic heritage as revealed by mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomal lineages

It is well known that at the end of the 20th century numerous anthropological studies of modern European populations indicated pronounced diversity between and among various groups. These findings have been confirmed by the analyses of quantitative (e.g. morphological) characters and allele frequencies of various genetic systems. Occasionally, a connection has been established between the frequency and borders of language families as well as phylogeographic distributions of different polymorphisms, however many questions remain unanswered. Considering the existing form of different gene frequencies/polymorphisms within various European populations, certain explicit hypotheses, not necessarily dependent, can rightfully be posed. One of them is that observed pattern can be explained by the model of isolation by distance, i.e. a simple and oftentimes random model of differentiation within a given site, while another possible hypothesis is that differentiation is a long-term process of adaptation through selection. It is clear that the simultaneous activity of all evolutionary forces on the genetic formation of present-day human groups must be addressed, which inevitably includes assessments of the effects of drift and gene flow. All this points of crucial question: is it possible to equalize the observed patterns in all populations or does each population has its own specificities? Are there identical or similar trends of drift and bottleneck effects within each population? At what levels do we see their activity? Is there a logical connection between historical origin, migration and mobility patterns of men and women from the current localization of individual population groups with the frequency forms of their (individual) genetic lineages? Before this issue, the lecture will address various scenarios of (micro)evolution through the analysis of mitochondrial and DNA Y chromosome lineages of the modern populations of Southeastern Europe as a detailed model for the generation of new hypothesis. The results of published mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms (explored by sequencing mtDNA HVS1 region and screening a selection of 24 restriction fragment length polymorphisms-RFLPs-diagnostic for main Eurasian mtDNA haplogropus) and Y chromosome variation (by using 19 single nucleotide polymorphisms-SNP/indel and 8 short tandem repeat-STR-loci) will be analyzed by the holistic analytic approach. An overview of the possible interpretations of prehistorical and historical scenarios will be provided including factors such as: population exchange, demic diffusion, short-term migration movements and mobility of the population, the assessment of possible founder individuals, the form of selection of reproductive partners, the effect of possible settling an population reflux and the dependence of demographic characteristics of various historical groups. The current findings of mitochondrial and DNA Y chromosome lineages of the population of the SE Europe will be analyzed and interpreted with an emphasis on the fact that historical processes are the laboratory in which modern human populations were formed and that the western Balkan can be considered as an reservoir and a starting point of I1b-P37 (not including M26) post-glacial dispersal.

mtDNA polymorphisms; Y chromosome variation; SE European populations

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