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Genetic landscape of populations along the Silk Road: admixture and migration patterns

Massimo Mezzavilla, Diego Vozzi, Nicola Pirastu, Giorgia Girotto, Pio d’Adamo, Paolo Gasparini, Vincenza Colonna
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/011759
Massimo Mezzavilla
1Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste, Italy
2Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, Italy
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Diego Vozzi
1Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste, Italy
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Nicola Pirastu
2Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, Italy
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Giorgia Girotto
2Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, Italy
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Pio d’Adamo
2Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, Italy
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Paolo Gasparini
1Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste, Italy
2Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, Italy
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Vincenza Colonna
3Institute of Genetics and Biophysics ‘A. Buzzati-Traverso’, National Research Council (CNR), Naples, Italy
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ABSTRACT

Background The ancient Silk Road has been a trading route between Europe and Central Asia from the 2nd century BCE to the 15th century CE. While most populations on this route have been characterized, the genetic background of others remains poorly understood, and little is known about past migration patterns. The scientific expedition “Marco Polo” has recently collected genetic and phenotypic data in six regions (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan) along the Silk Road to study the genetics of a number of phenotypes.

Results We characterized the genetic structure of these populations within a worldwide context. We observed a West-East subdivision albeit the existence of a genetic component shared within Central Asia and nearby populations from Europe and Near East. We observed a contribution of up to 50% from Europe and Asia to most of the populations that have been analyzed. The contribution from Asia dates back to ~25 generations and is limited to the Eastern Silk Road. Time and direction of this contribution are consistent with the Mongolian expansion era.

Conclusions We clarified the genetic structure of six populations from Central Asia and suggested a complex pattern of gene flow among them. We provided a map of migration events in time and space and we quantified exchanges among populations. Altogether these novel findings will support the future studies aimed at understanding the genetics of the phenotypes that have been collected during the Marco Polo campaign, they will provide insights into the history of these populations, and they will be useful to reconstruct the developments and events that have shaped modern Eurasians genomes.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
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Posted November 24, 2014.
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Genetic landscape of populations along the Silk Road: admixture and migration patterns
Massimo Mezzavilla, Diego Vozzi, Nicola Pirastu, Giorgia Girotto, Pio d’Adamo, Paolo Gasparini, Vincenza Colonna
bioRxiv 011759; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/011759
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Genetic landscape of populations along the Silk Road: admixture and migration patterns
Massimo Mezzavilla, Diego Vozzi, Nicola Pirastu, Giorgia Girotto, Pio d’Adamo, Paolo Gasparini, Vincenza Colonna
bioRxiv 011759; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/011759

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