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The Genetic Legacy of the Expansion of Turkic-Speaking Nomads Across Eurasia

Bayazit Yunusbayev, Mait Metspalu, Ene Metspalu, Albert Valeev, Sergei Litvinov, Ruslan Valiev, Vita Akhmetova, Elena Balanovska, Oleg Balanovsky, Shahlo Turdikulova, Dilbar Dalimova, Pagbajabyn Nymadawa, Ardeshir Bahmanimehr, Hovhannes Sahakyan, Kristiina Tambets, Sardana Fedorova, Nikolay Barashkov, Irina Khidiatova, Evelin Mihailov, Rita Khusainova, Larisa Damba, Miroslava Derenko, Boris Malyarchuk, Ludmila Osipova, Mikhail Voevoda, Levon Yepiskoposyan, Toomas Kivisild, Elza Khusnutdinova, Richard Villems
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/005850
Bayazit Yunusbayev
1Evolutionary Biology group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia
2Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Ufa Research Centre, RAS, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia
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Mait Metspalu
1Evolutionary Biology group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia
3Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
4Department of Integrative Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, USA
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Ene Metspalu
3Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
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Albert Valeev
2Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Ufa Research Centre, RAS, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia
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Sergei Litvinov
1Evolutionary Biology group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia
2Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Ufa Research Centre, RAS, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia
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Ruslan Valiev
5Department of Genetics and Fundamental Medicine, Bashkir State University, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia
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Vita Akhmetova
2Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Ufa Research Centre, RAS, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia
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Elena Balanovska
6Research Centre for Medical Genetics, RAMS, Moscow, Russia
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Oleg Balanovsky
6Research Centre for Medical Genetics, RAMS, Moscow, Russia
7Vavilov Institute for General Genetics, RAS, Moscow, Russia
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Shahlo Turdikulova
8Laboratory of Genomics, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Academy of Sciences Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
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Dilbar Dalimova
8Laboratory of Genomics, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Academy of Sciences Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
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Pagbajabyn Nymadawa
9Mongolian Academy of Medical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
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Ardeshir Bahmanimehr
10Department of Medical Genetics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran
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Hovhannes Sahakyan
1Evolutionary Biology group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia
11Laboratory of Ethnogenomics, Institute of Molecular Biology, Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia
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Kristiina Tambets
1Evolutionary Biology group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia
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Sardana Fedorova
12Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Yakut Research Center of Complex Medical Problems, Yakutsk, Sakha Republic, Russia
13Laboratory of Molecular Biology, North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Sakha Republic, Russia
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Nikolay Barashkov
12Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Yakut Research Center of Complex Medical Problems, Yakutsk, Sakha Republic, Russia
13Laboratory of Molecular Biology, North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Sakha Republic, Russia
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Irina Khidiatova
2Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Ufa Research Centre, RAS, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia
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Evelin Mihailov
14Estonian Genome Center, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
15Gene Technology Workgroup, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia
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Rita Khusainova
2Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Ufa Research Centre, RAS, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia
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Larisa Damba
16Institute of Internal Medicine, SB RAMS, Novosibirsk, Russia
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Miroslava Derenko
17Institute of Biological Problems of the North, Magadan, Russia
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Boris Malyarchuk
17Institute of Biological Problems of the North, Magadan, Russia
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Ludmila Osipova
18Institute of Cytology and Genetics, SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia.
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Mikhail Voevoda
16Institute of Internal Medicine, SB RAMS, Novosibirsk, Russia
18Institute of Cytology and Genetics, SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia.
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Levon Yepiskoposyan
11Laboratory of Ethnogenomics, Institute of Molecular Biology, Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia
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Toomas Kivisild
19Division of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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Elza Khusnutdinova
2Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Ufa Research Centre, RAS, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia
5Department of Genetics and Fundamental Medicine, Bashkir State University, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia
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Richard Villems
1Evolutionary Biology group, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu, Estonia
3Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
20Estonian Academy of Sciences, Tallinn, Estonia
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Abstract

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. Most of the Turkic peoples studied, except those in Central Asia, genetically resembled their geographic neighbors, in agreement with the elite dominance model of language expansion. 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. The observed excess of long chromosomal tracts IBD (> 1cM) between populations from SSM and Turkic peoples across West Eurasia was statistically significant. 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.

Author Summary Centuries of nomadic migrations have ultimately resulted in the distribution of Turkic languages over a large area ranging from Siberia, across Central Asia to Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Despite the profound cultural impact left by these nomadic peoples, little is known about their prehistoric origins. Moreover, because contemporary Turkic speakers tend to genetically resemble their geographic neighbors, it is not clear whether their nomadic ancestors left an identifiable genetic trace. In this study, we show that Turkic-speaking peoples sampled across the Middle East, Caucasus, East Europe, and Central Asia share varying proportions of Asian ancestry that originate in a single area, southern Siberia and Mongolia. Mongolic- and Turkic-speaking populations from this area bear an unusually high number of long chromosomal tracts that are identical by descent with Turkic peoples from across west Eurasia. Admixture induced linkage disequilibrium decay across chromosomes in these populations indicates that admixture occurred during the 9th–17th centuries, in agreement with the historically recorded Turkic nomadic migrations and later Mongol expansion. Thus, our findings reveal genetic traces of recent large-scale nomadic migrations and map their source to a previously hypothesized area of Mongolia and southern Siberia.

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Posted July 30, 2014.
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The Genetic Legacy of the Expansion of Turkic-Speaking Nomads Across Eurasia
Bayazit Yunusbayev, Mait Metspalu, Ene Metspalu, Albert Valeev, Sergei Litvinov, Ruslan Valiev, Vita Akhmetova, Elena Balanovska, Oleg Balanovsky, Shahlo Turdikulova, Dilbar Dalimova, Pagbajabyn Nymadawa, Ardeshir Bahmanimehr, Hovhannes Sahakyan, Kristiina Tambets, Sardana Fedorova, Nikolay Barashkov, Irina Khidiatova, Evelin Mihailov, Rita Khusainova, Larisa Damba, Miroslava Derenko, Boris Malyarchuk, Ludmila Osipova, Mikhail Voevoda, Levon Yepiskoposyan, Toomas Kivisild, Elza Khusnutdinova, Richard Villems
bioRxiv 005850; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/005850
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The Genetic Legacy of the Expansion of Turkic-Speaking Nomads Across Eurasia
Bayazit Yunusbayev, Mait Metspalu, Ene Metspalu, Albert Valeev, Sergei Litvinov, Ruslan Valiev, Vita Akhmetova, Elena Balanovska, Oleg Balanovsky, Shahlo Turdikulova, Dilbar Dalimova, Pagbajabyn Nymadawa, Ardeshir Bahmanimehr, Hovhannes Sahakyan, Kristiina Tambets, Sardana Fedorova, Nikolay Barashkov, Irina Khidiatova, Evelin Mihailov, Rita Khusainova, Larisa Damba, Miroslava Derenko, Boris Malyarchuk, Ludmila Osipova, Mikhail Voevoda, Levon Yepiskoposyan, Toomas Kivisild, Elza Khusnutdinova, Richard Villems
bioRxiv 005850; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/005850

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