Genomic analyses inform on migration events during the peopling of Eurasia.

High-coverage whole-genome sequence studies have so far focused on a limited number of geographically restricted populations, or been targeted at specific diseases, such as cancer. Nevertheless, the availability of high-resolution genomic data has led to the development of new methodologies for inferring population history and refuelled the debate on the mutation rate in humans. Here we present the Estonian Biocentre Human Genome Diversity Panel (EGDP), a dataset of 483 high-coverage human genomes from 148 populations worldwide, including 379 new genomes from 125 populations, which we group into diversity and selection sets. We analyse this dataset to refine estimates of continent-wide patterns of heterozygosity, long- and short-distance gene flow, archaic admixture, and changes in effective population size through time as well as for signals of positive or balancing selection. We find a genetic signature in present-day Papuans that suggests that at least 2% of their genome originates from an early and largely extinct expansion of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) out of Africa. Together with evidence from the western Asian fossil record, and admixture between AMHs and Neanderthals predating the main Eurasian expansion, our results contribute to the mounting evidence for the presence of AMHs out of Africa earlier than 75,000 years ago.

Human Y Chromosome Haplogroup N: A Non-trivial Time-Resolved Phylogeography that Cuts across Language Families.

The paternal haplogroup (hg) N is distributed from southeast Asia to eastern Europe. The demographic processes that have shaped the vast extent of this major Y chromosome lineage across numerous linguistically and autosomally divergent populations have previously been unresolved. On the basis of 94 high-coverage re-sequenced Y chromosomes, we establish and date a detailed hg N phylogeny. We evaluate geographic structure by using 16 distinguishing binary markers in 1,631 hg N Y chromosomes from a collection of 6,521 samples from 56 populations. The more southerly distributed sub-clade N4 emerged before N2a1 and N3, found mostly in the north, but the latter two display more elaborate branching patterns, indicative of regional contrasts in recent expansions. In particular, a number of prominent and well-defined clades with common N3a3'6 ancestry occur in regionally dissimilar northern Eurasian populations, indicating almost simultaneous regional diversification and expansion within the last 5,000 years. This patrilineal genetic affinity is decoupled from the associated higher degree of language diversity.

A recent bottleneck of Y chromosome diversity coincides with a global change in culture.

It is commonly thought that human genetic diversity in non-African populations was shaped primarily by an out-of-Africa dispersal 50-100 thousand yr ago (kya). Here, we present a study of 456 geographically diverse high-coverage Y chromosome sequences, including 299 newly reported samples. Applying ancient DNA calibration, we date the Y-chromosomal most recent common ancestor (MRCA) in Africa at 254 (95% CI 192-307) kya and detect a cluster of major non-African founder haplogroups in a narrow time interval at 47-52 kya, consistent with a rapid initial colonization model of Eurasia and Oceania after the out-of-Africa bottleneck. In contrast to demographic reconstructions based on mtDNA, we infer a second strong bottleneck in Y-chromosome lineages dating to the last 10 ky. We hypothesize that this bottleneck is caused by cultural changes affecting variance of reproductive success among males.

The genetic legacy of the expansion of Turkic-speaking nomads across Eurasia.

The Turkic peoples represent a diverse collection of ethnic groups defined by the Turkic languages. These groups have dispersed across a vast area, including Siberia, Northwest China, Central Asia, East Europe, the Caucasus, Anatolia, the Middle East, and Afghanistan. The origin and early dispersal history of the Turkic peoples is disputed, with candidates for their ancient homeland ranging from the Transcaspian steppe to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. Previous genetic studies have not identified a clear-cut unifying genetic signal for the Turkic peoples, which lends support for language replacement rather than demic diffusion as the model for the Turkic language's expansion. We addressed the genetic origin of 373 individuals from 22 Turkic-speaking populations, representing their current geographic range, by analyzing genome-wide high-density genotype data. In agreement with the elite dominance model of language expansion most of the Turkic peoples studied genetically resemble their geographic neighbors. However, western Turkic peoples sampled across West Eurasia shared an excess of long chromosomal tracts that are identical by descent (IBD) with populations from present-day South Siberia and Mongolia (SSM), an area where historians center a series of early Turkic and non-Turkic steppe polities. While SSM matching IBD tracts (> 1cM) are also observed in non-Turkic populations, Turkic peoples demonstrate a higher percentage of such tracts (p-values ≤ 0.01) compared to their non-Turkic neighbors. Finally, we used the ALDER method and inferred admixture dates (~9th-17th centuries) that overlap with the Turkic migrations of the 5th-16th centuries. Thus, our results indicate historical admixture among Turkic peoples, and the recent shared ancestry with modern populations in SSM supports one of the hypothesized homelands for their nomadic Turkic and related Mongolic ancestors.

The genome-wide structure of the Jewish people.

Contemporary Jews comprise an aggregate of ethno-religious communities whose worldwide members identify with each other through various shared religious, historical and cultural traditions. Historical evidence suggests common origins in the Middle East, followed by migrations leading to the establishment of communities of Jews in Europe, Africa and Asia, in what is termed the Jewish Diaspora. This complex demographic history imposes special challenges in attempting to address the genetic structure of the Jewish people. Although many genetic studies have shed light on Jewish origins and on diseases prevalent among Jewish communities, including studies focusing on uniparentally and biparentally inherited markers, genome-wide patterns of variation across the vast geographic span of Jewish Diaspora communities and their respective neighbours have yet to be addressed. Here we use high-density bead arrays to genotype individuals from 14 Jewish Diaspora communities and compare these patterns of genome-wide diversity with those from 69 Old World non-Jewish populations, of which 25 have not previously been reported. These samples were carefully chosen to provide comprehensive comparisons between Jewish and non-Jewish populations in the Diaspora, as well as with non-Jewish populations from the Middle East and north Africa. Principal component and structure-like analyses identify previously unrecognized genetic substructure within the Middle East. Most Jewish samples form a remarkably tight subcluster that overlies Druze and Cypriot samples but not samples from other Levantine populations or paired Diaspora host populations. In contrast, Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) and Indian Jews (Bene Israel and Cochini) cluster with neighbouring autochthonous populations in Ethiopia and western India, respectively, despite a clear paternal link between the Bene Israel and the Levant. These results cast light on the variegated genetic architecture of the Middle East, and trace the origins of most Jewish Diaspora communities to the Levant.

Shared and unique components of human population structure and genome-wide signals of positive selection in South Asia.

South Asia harbors one of the highest levels genetic diversity in Eurasia, which could be interpreted as a result of its long-term large effective population size and of admixture during its complex demographic history. In contrast to Pakistani populations, populations of Indian origin have been underrepresented in previous genomic scans of positive selection and population structure. Here we report data for more than 600,000 SNP markers genotyped in 142 samples from 30 ethnic groups in India. Combining our results with other available genome-wide data, we show that Indian populations are characterized by two major ancestry components, one of which is spread at comparable frequency and haplotype diversity in populations of South and West Asia and the Caucasus. The second component is more restricted to South Asia and accounts for more than 50% of the ancestry in Indian populations. Haplotype diversity associated with these South Asian ancestry components is significantly higher than that of the components dominating the West Eurasian ancestry palette. Modeling of the observed haplotype diversities suggests that both Indian ancestry components are older than the purported Indo-Aryan invasion 3,500 YBP. Consistent with the results of pairwise genetic distances among world regions, Indians share more ancestry signals with West than with East Eurasians. However, compared to Pakistani populations, a higher proportion of their genes show regionally specific signals of high haplotype homozygosity. Among such candidates of positive selection in India are MSTN and DOK5, both of which have potential implications in lipid metabolism and the etiology of type 2 diabetes.

Excess fermentation and lactic acidosis as detrimental functions of the gut microbes in treatment-naive TB patients.

Introduction: The link between gut microbiota and host immunity motivated numerous studies of the gut microbiome in tuberculosis (TB) patients. However, these studies did not explore the metabolic capacity of the gut community, which is a key axis of impact on the host's immunity. Methods: We used deep sequencing of fecal samples from 23 treatment-naive TB patients and 48 healthy donors to reconstruct the gut microbiome's metabolic capacity and strain/species-level content. Results: We show that the systematic depletion of the commensal flora of the large intestine, Bacteroidetes, and an increase in Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria such as Streptococcaceae, Erysipelotrichaceae, Lachnospiraceae, and Enterobacteriaceae explains the strong taxonomic divergence of the gut community in TB patients. The cumulative expansion of diverse disease-associated pathobionts in patients reached 1/4 of the total gut microbiota, suggesting a heavy toll on host immunity along with MTB infection. Reconstruction of metabolic pathways showed that the microbial community in patients shifted toward rapid growth using glycolysis and excess fermentation to produce acetate and lactate. Higher glucose availability in the intestine likely drives fermentation to lactate and growth, causing acidosis and endotoxemia. Discussion: Excessive fermentation and lactic acidosis likely characterize TB patients' disturbed gut microbiomes. Since lactic acidosis strongly suppresses the normal gut flora, directly interferes with macrophage function, and is linked to mortality in TB patients, our findings highlight gut lactate acidosis as a novel research focus. If confirmed, gut acidosis may be a novel potential host-directed treatment target to augment traditional TB treatment.

The Caucasus as an asymmetric semipermeable barrier to ancient human migrations.

The Caucasus, inhabited by modern humans since the Early Upper Paleolithic and known for its linguistic diversity, is considered to be important for understanding human dispersals and genetic diversity in Eurasia. We report a synthesis of autosomal, Y chromosome, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in populations from all major subregions and linguistic phyla of the area. Autosomal genome variation in the Caucasus reveals significant genetic uniformity among its ethnically and linguistically diverse populations and is consistent with predominantly Near/Middle Eastern origin of the Caucasians, with minor external impacts. In contrast to autosomal and mtDNA variation, signals of regional Y chromosome founder effects distinguish the eastern from western North Caucasians. Genetic discontinuity between the North Caucasus and the East European Plain contrasts with continuity through Anatolia and the Balkans, suggesting major routes of ancient gene flows and admixture.

No evidence from genome-wide data of a Khazar origin for the Ashkenazi Jews.

The origin and history of the Ashkenazi Jewish population have long been of great interest, and advances in high-throughput genetic analysis have recently provided a new approach for investigating these topics. We and others have argued on the basis of genome-wide data that the Ashkenazi Jewish population derives its ancestry from a combination of sources tracing to both Europe and the Middle East. It has been claimed, however, through a reanalysis of some of our data, that a large part of the ancestry of the Ashkenazi population originates with the Khazars, a Turkic-speaking group that lived to the north of the Caucasus region ~1,000 years ago. Because the Khazar population has left no obvious modern descendants that could enable a clear test for a contribution to Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, the Khazar hypothesis has been difficult to examine using genetics. Furthermore, because only limited genetic data have been available from the Caucasus region, and because these data have been concentrated in populations that are genetically close to populations from the Middle East, the attribution of any signal of Ashkenazi-Caucasus genetic similarity to Khazar ancestry rather than shared ancestral Middle Eastern ancestry has been problematic. Here, through integration of genotypes from newly collected samples with data from several of our past studies, we have assembled the largest data set available to date for assessment of Ashkenazi Jewish genetic origins. This data set contains genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 1,774 samples from 106 Jewish and non-Jewish populations that span the possible regions of potential Ashkenazi ancestry: Europe, the Middle East, and the region historically associated with the Khazar Khaganate. The data set includes 261 samples from 15 populations from the Caucasus region and the region directly to its north, samples that have not previously been included alongside Ashkenazi Jewish samples in genomic studies. Employing a variety of standard techniques for the analysis of population-genetic structure, we found that Ashkenazi Jews share the greatest genetic ancestry with other Jewish populations and, among non-Jewish populations, with groups from Europe and the Middle East. No particular similarity of Ashkenazi Jews to populations from the Caucasus is evident, particularly populations that most closely represent the Khazar region. Thus, analysis of Ashkenazi Jews together with a large sample from the region of the Khazar Khaganate corroborates the earlier results that Ashkenazi Jews derive their ancestry primarily from populations of the Middle East and Europe, that they possess considerable shared ancestry with other Jewish populations, and that there is no indication of a significant genetic contribution either from within or from north of the Caucasus region.

Long-range regulatory effects of Neandertal DNA in modern humans.

The admixture between modern humans and Neandertals has resulted in ∼2% of the genomes of present-day non-Africans being composed of Neandertal DNA. Introgressed Neandertal DNA has been demonstrated to significantly affect the transcriptomic landscape in people today and via this molecular mechanism influence phenotype variation as well. However, little is known about how much of that regulatory impact is mediated through long-range regulatory effects that have been shown to explain ∼20% of expression variation. Here we identified 60 transcription factors (TFs) with their top cis-eQTL SNP in GTEx being of Neandertal ancestry and predicted long-range Neandertal DNA-induced regulatory effects by screening for the predicted target genes of those TFs. We show that the TFs form a significantly connected protein-protein interaction network. Among them are JUN and PRDM5, two brain-expressed TFs that have their predicted target genes enriched in regions devoid of Neandertal DNA. Archaic cis-eQTLs for the 60 TFs include multiple candidates for local adaptation, some of which show significant allele frequency increases over the last ∼10,000 years. A large proportion of the cis-eQTL-associated archaic SNPs have additional associations with various immune traits, schizophrenia, blood cell type composition and anthropometric measures. Finally, we demonstrate that our results are consistent with those of Neandertal DNA-associated empirical trans-eQTLs. Our results suggest that Neandertal DNA significantly influences regulatory networks, that its regulatory reach goes beyond the 40% of genomic sequence it still covers in present-day non-Africans and that via the investigated mechanism Neandertal DNA influences the phenotypic variation in people today.

Prioritizing autoimmunity risk variants for functional analyses by fine-mapping mutations under natural selection.

Pathogen-driven selection shaped adaptive mutations in immunity genes, including those contributing to inflammatory disorders. Functional characterization of such adaptive variants can shed light on disease biology and past adaptations. This popular idea, however, was difficult to test due to challenges in pinpointing adaptive mutations in selection footprints. In this study, using a local-tree-based approach, we show that 28% of risk loci (153/535) in 21 inflammatory disorders bear footprints of moderate and weak selection, and part of them are population specific. Weak selection footprints allow partial fine-mapping, and we show that in 19% (29/153) of the risk loci under selection, candidate disease variants are hitchhikers, and only in 39% of cases they are likely selection targets. We predict function for a subset of these selected SNPs and highlight examples of antagonistic pleiotropy. We conclude by offering disease variants under selection that can be tested functionally using infectious agents and other stressors to decipher the poorly understood link between environmental stressors and genetic risk in inflammatory conditions.

Improved Apis mellifera reference genome based on the alternative long-read-based assemblies.

Apis mellifera L., the western honey bee is a major crop pollinator that plays a key role in beekeeping and serves as an important model organism in social behavior studies. Recent efforts have improved on the quality of the honey bee reference genome and developed a chromosome-level assembly of 16 chromosomes, two of which are gapless. However, the rest suffer from 51 gaps, 160 unplaced/unlocalized scaffolds, and the lack of 2 distal telomeres. The gaps are located at the hard-to-assemble extended highly repetitive chromosomal regions that may contain functional genomic elements. Here, we use de novo re-assemblies from the most recent reference genome Amel_HAv_3.1 raw reads and other long-read-based assemblies (INRA_AMelMel_1.0, ASM1384120v1, and ASM1384124v1) of the honey bee genome to resolve 13 gaps, five unplaced/unlocalized scaffolds and, the lacking telomeres of the Amel_HAv_3.1. The total length of the resolved gaps is 848,747 bp. The accuracy of the corrected assembly was validated by mapping PacBio reads and performing gene annotation assessment. Comparative analysis suggests that the PacBio-reads-based assemblies of the honey bee genomes failed in the same highly repetitive extended regions of the chromosomes, especially on chromosome 10. To fully resolve these extended repetitive regions, further work using ultra-long Nanopore sequencing would be needed. Our updated assembly facilitates more accurate reference-guided scaffolding and marker/sequence mapping in honey bee genomics studies.

Origin and diffusion of human Y chromosome haplogroup J1-M267.

Human Y chromosome haplogroup J1-M267 is a common male lineage in West Asia. One high-frequency region-encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, southern Mesopotamia, and the southern Levant-resides ~ 2000 km away from the other one found in the Caucasus. The region between them, although has a lower frequency, nevertheless demonstrates high genetic diversity. Studies associate this haplogroup with the spread of farming from the Fertile Crescent to Europe, the spread of mobile pastoralism in the desert regions of the Arabian Peninsula, the history of the Jews, and the spread of Islam. Here, we study past human male demography in West Asia with 172 high-coverage whole Y chromosome sequences and 889 genotyped samples of haplogroup J1-M267. We show that this haplogroup evolved ~ 20,000 years ago somewhere in northwestern Iran, the Caucasus, the Armenian Highland, and northern Mesopotamia. The major branch-J1a1a1-P58-evolved during the early Holocene ~ 9500 years ago somewhere in the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, and southern Mesopotamia. Haplogroup J1-M267 expanded during the Chalcolithic, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Most probably, the spread of Afro-Asiatic languages, the spread of mobile pastoralism in the arid zones, or both of these events together explain the distribution of haplogroup J1-M267 we see today in the southern regions of West Asia.

Treatment efficacy of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Bashkortostan, Russia: A retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Russia, together with other former Soviet Union countries, is characterized by one of the highest burdens of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Published data on the drug-resistant tuberculosis for these countries are limited, and it is not clear whether current treatment regimens remain effective against constantly evolving drug-resistant strains. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to evaluate treatment efficacy of patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR), extensively drug-resistant (XDR) and drug-susceptible (DSTB) tuberculosis in the most populous region of Russia (Bashkortostan) that borders with Central Asia. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was performed on 436 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis who were enrolled between January 1, 2016, and February 28, 2018, and received treatment according to WHO recommendations. Altogether, 369 patients completed the full course of chemotherapy. Clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of DSTB, MDR, and XDR-TB patients were analyzed. RESULTS: Of 436 patients, 169 (39%) had XDR-TB, 94 (22%) had MDR-TB and 173 (40%) had DSTB. Half of the MDR-TB patients (44%) and 82% of XDR-TB patients failed treatment. Patients with DSTB had unexpectedly poor treatment efficacy: only 67% had treatment success. We found that most of the MDR isolates from our patients were resistant to all first-line drugs, and a majority of the XDR isolates were resistant to more than 6-7 anti-TB drugs. While this can explain poor treatment efficacy in drug-resistant cases, causes of poor treatment efficacy in DSTB patients remain unclear. Finally, a considerable fraction (46%) of newly diagnosed patients had MDR-TB (27%) and XDR-TB (19%), suggesting that drug-resistant Mtb is being transmitted in the general population. To our best knowledge, this study is the first one to report XDR-TB prevalence in Russia in recent years (2016-2018). CONCLUSIONS: MDR and XDR-TB became more common in recent years and treatment efficacy is declining at the face of more extensive drug resistance. There is evidence for the transmission of resistant strains in the general population, which calls for urgent changes not only in clinical practice but also in measures to prevent spread in the general population.

Reconstructing recent population history while mapping rare variants using haplotypes.

Haplotype-based methods are a cost-effective alternative to characterize unobserved rare variants and map disease-associated alleles. Moreover, they can be used to reconstruct recent population history, which shaped distribution of rare variants and thus can be used to guide gene mapping studies. In this study, we analysed Illumina 650 k genotyped dataset on three underrepresented populations from Eastern Europe, where ancestors of Russians came into contact with two indigenous ethnic groups, Bashkirs and Tatars. Using the IBD mapping approach, we identified two rare IBD haplotypes strongly enriched in asthma patients of distinct ethnic background. We reconstructed recent population history using haplotype-based methods to reconcile this contradictory finding. Our ChromoPainter analysis showed that these haplotypes each descend from a single ancestor coming from one of the ethnic groups studied. Next, we used DoRIS approach and showed that source populations for patients exchanged recent (<60 generations) asymmetric gene flow, which supported the ChromoPainter-based scenario that patients share haplotypes through inter-ethnic admixture. Finally, we show that these IBD haplotypes overlap with asthma-associated genomic regions ascertained in European population. This finding is consistent with the fact that the two donor populations for the rare IBD haplotypes: Russians and Tatars have European ancestry.

Y-chromosomal connection between Hungarians and geographically distant populations of the Ural Mountain region and West Siberia.

Hungarians who live in Central Europe today are one of the westernmost Uralic speakers. Despite of the proposed Volga-Ural/West Siberian roots of the Hungarian language, the present-day Hungarian gene pool is highly similar to that of the surrounding Indo-European speaking populations. However, a limited portion of specific Y-chromosomal lineages from haplogroup N, sometimes associated with the spread of Uralic languages, link modern Hungarians with populations living close to the Ural Mountain range on the border of Europe and Asia. Here we investigate the paternal genetic connection between these spatially separated populations. We reconstruct the phylogeny of N3a4-Z1936 clade by using 33 high-coverage Y-chromosomal sequences and estimate the coalescent times of its sub-clades. We genotype close to 5000 samples from 46 Eurasian populations to show the presence of N3a4-B539 lineages among Hungarians and in the populations from Ural Mountain region, including Ob-Ugric-speakers from West Siberia who are geographically distant but linguistically closest to Hungarians. This sub-clade splits from its sister-branch N3a4-B535, frequent today among Northeast European Uralic speakers, 4000-5000 ya, which is in the time-frame of the proposed divergence of Ugric languages.

Psoriasis patients demonstrate HLA-Cw*06:02 allele dosage-dependent T cell proliferation when treated with hair follicle-derived keratin 17 protein.

It is broadly accepted that psoriasis is an immune-mediated disease with a heritable component, but it is not clear what causes inflammation in the skin. Previous research suggests that fragments of the keratin 17 (K17) protein, which are constitutively expressed in hair follicles, could act as autoantigens. In this study, we synthesized the K17 protein from mRNA derived from hair follicles and tested whether it elicited T cell responses depending on the patient genotype at the major susceptibility locus HLA-Cw*06:02. We treated peripheral blood-derived cells with the K17 protein and its short fragments to assess the T cell proliferation response using flow cytometry. Our analyses show a significantly stronger increase in cell proliferation among patients but not in healthy controls. We then examined whether the variation in T cell proliferation correlated with the patient HLA-Cw*06:02 risk genotype. Considering the affected status and patient genotype as two independent predictors, we fitted a linear model and showed that the HLA-Cw*06:02 allele dosage strongly predicted the T cell response. Our study findings suggest that the K17 protein likely acts as an autoantigen in psoriasis and that patients' risk genotype is strongly correlated with the magnitude of the response to this putative autoantigen.

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

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

East Eurasian ancestry in the middle of Europe: genetic footprints of Steppe nomads in the genomes of Belarusian Lipka Tatars.

Medieval era encounters of nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe and largely sedentary East Europeans had a variety of demographic and cultural consequences. Amongst these outcomes was the emergence of the Lipka Tatars-a Slavic-speaking Sunni-Muslim minority residing in modern Belarus, Lithuania and Poland, whose ancestors arrived in these territories via several migration waves, mainly from the Golden Horde. Our results show that Belarusian Lipka Tatars share a substantial part of their gene pool with Europeans as indicated by their Y-chromosomal, mitochondrial and autosomal DNA variation. Nevertheless, Belarusian Lipkas still retain a strong genetic signal of their nomadic ancestry, witnessed by the presence of common Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA variants as well as autosomal segments identical by descent between Lipkas and East Eurasians from temperate and northern regions. Hence, we document Lipka Tatars as a unique example of former Medieval migrants into Central Europe, who became sedentary, changed language to Slavic, yet preserved their faith and retained, both uni- and bi-parentally, a clear genetic echo of a complex population interplay throughout the Eurasian Steppe Belt, extending from Central Europe to northern China.

Genetic Heritage of the Balto-Slavic Speaking Populations: A Synthesis of Autosomal, Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosomal Data.

The Slavic branch of the Balto-Slavic sub-family of Indo-European languages underwent rapid divergence as a result of the spatial expansion of its speakers from Central-East Europe, in early medieval times. This expansion-mainly to East Europe and the northern Balkans-resulted in the incorporation of genetic components from numerous autochthonous populations into the Slavic gene pools. Here, we characterize genetic variation in all extant ethnic groups speaking Balto-Slavic languages by analyzing mitochondrial DNA (n = 6,876), Y-chromosomes (n = 6,079) and genome-wide SNP profiles (n = 296), within the context of other European populations. We also reassess the phylogeny of Slavic languages within the Balto-Slavic branch of Indo-European. We find that genetic distances among Balto-Slavic populations, based on autosomal and Y-chromosomal loci, show a high correlation (0.9) both with each other and with geography, but a slightly lower correlation (0.7) with mitochondrial DNA and linguistic affiliation. The data suggest that genetic diversity of the present-day Slavs was predominantly shaped in situ, and we detect two different substrata: 'central-east European' for West and East Slavs, and 'south-east European' for South Slavs. A pattern of distribution of segments identical by descent between groups of East-West and South Slavs suggests shared ancestry or a modest gene flow between those two groups, which might derive from the historic spread of Slavic people.