engleski

Vlax Roma in Croatia - signs of endogamy in maternal gene pool

Vlax Roma are a branch of Romani people who were enslaved in the historic Romanian states Wallachia and Moldavia between 14th and 19th centuries. After Roma slavery was abolished, larger Vlax Roma groups immigrated to Croatia. Since Roma population is made of numerous socio- cultural endogamous groups, we investigated the extent of fragmentation of Vlax Roma in Croatia by analysing hyper variable segment I (HVS-I) and typing relevant RFLP sites in the mitochondrial DNA of 390 Bayash from two Croatian regions: Baranja (235) and Medjimurje (155). Diversity indexes point to higher level of variation among Vlax Roma settled in Eastern (Baranja) than in Northwestern Croatia (Medjimurje). The analysis of mismatch distribution clearly points to differences in demographic changes of these two subpopulations. Those results are in concordance with field research data on residence patterns indicating higher endogamy in Northwestern than Eastern Croatia. Interestingly, collected sociocultural data point to absence of marriage unions between Vlax Roma from Eastern and North-western Croatia, indicating that shared mtDNA lineages are a result of common gene pole that predates their separation in Croatia. Despite similar origins and shared demographic history of two Croatian Vlax Roma populations, founder effect followed by strict endogamy shaped their evident population differentiation.

Roma; mtDNA; founder effect

nije evidentirano