Email this article Inferring the Genetic Ancestry of Ubykh People from North Caucasus
- Authors: Balanovska E.V.1,2, Skhalyakho R.A.1,3, Kagazezheva Z.A.1,4,5, Zaporozhchenko V.V.1,4, Urasin V.M.6, Agdzhoyan A.T.1,4, Koshel S.M.7, Pocheshkhova E.A.5, Balanovsky O.P.1,2,4
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Affiliations:
- Research Centre for Medical Genetics
- Biobank of North Eurasia
- Science Park, St. Petersburg State University
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences
- Kuban State Medical University
- YFull Team
- Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics, Moscow State University
- Issue: Vol 55, No 12 (2019)
- Pages: 1545-1553
- Section: Human Genetics
- URL: https://journals.rcsi.science/1022-7954/article/view/189863
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1022795419090035
- ID: 189863
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Abstract
Ubykh people inhabited the area of what now is Greater Sochi, one time being neighbors of the Abkhaz and Adyghe. In 1864, after the Caucasian War, a small group of Ubykh survivors migrated to Turkey. The Ubykh language is a branch of the Northwest Caucasian (Abkhazo-Adyghe) languages, which is either placed in the Abkhaz or Adyghe subgroup or distinguished in a separate subgroup, according to various classifications. All this makes Ubykhs an important but genetically unexplored part of the gene pool of the Caucasus population. We collected an exclusive sample (N = 36) of Ubykh individuals, mainly from their diaspora in Turkey. Application of a high resolution panel of Y-chromosome markers (59 SNP and 17 STR) revealed the major West Caucasus haplogroup G2 (75% of the Ubykh population) and pan-Eurasian haplogroup R1a (19%). Within the G2 haplogroup, we identified 14 branches and genotyped 14 branch-defining markers. The frequencies of the same 14 markers in 19 other populations of the Caucasus were included for comparison. Both the genetic distances and the gene geographical map of the most frequent subhaplogroup (defined by the YY1215 marker at the GRCh37 position 8903699, comprising 50% of the Ubykh sample) revealed similarity of the Ubykh and Adyghe populations. Other Abkhaz-Adyghe-speaking populations appear to be at a greater genetic distance from the Ubykhs, similar to the distance to the Turkic-speaking groups of the North Caucasus. The Ossetian gene pool has little in common with Ubykhs, thus contradicting the hypothesis of the Alanian substrate in Ubykhs. Other populations of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia (of Nakh-Daghestanian and Kartvelian linguistic groups) do not show apparent genetic similarities to Ubykhs.
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About the authors
E. V. Balanovska
Research Centre for Medical Genetics; Biobank of North Eurasia
Author for correspondence.
Email: balanovska@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 115478; Moscow, 115201
R. A. Skhalyakho
Research Centre for Medical Genetics; Science Park, St. Petersburg State University
Email: balanovska@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 115478; St. Petersburg, 198504
Zh. A. Kagazezheva
Research Centre for Medical Genetics; Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences; Kuban State Medical University
Email: balanovska@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 115478; Moscow, 119991; Krasnodar, 350063
V. V. Zaporozhchenko
Research Centre for Medical Genetics; Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences
Email: balanovska@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 115478; Moscow, 119991
V. M. Urasin
YFull Team
Email: balanovska@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 105523
A. T. Agdzhoyan
Research Centre for Medical Genetics; Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences
Email: balanovska@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 115478; Moscow, 119991
S. M. Koshel
Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics, Moscow State University
Email: balanovska@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 119991
E. A. Pocheshkhova
Kuban State Medical University
Email: balanovska@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Krasnodar, 350063
O. P. Balanovsky
Research Centre for Medical Genetics; Biobank of North Eurasia; Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences
Email: balanovska@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow, 115478; Moscow, 115201; Moscow, 119991
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