ABSTRACT
The Turkic language was introduced in Anatolia at the start of this millennium, by nomadic Turkmen groups from Central Asia. Whether that cultural transition also had significant population-genetics consequences is not fully understood. Three nuclear microsatellite loci, the hypervariable region I of the mitochondrial genome, six microsatellite loci of the Y chromosome, and one Alu insertion (YAP) were amplified and typed in 118 individuals from four populations of Anatolia. For each locus, the number of chromosomes considered varied between 51-200. Genetic variation was large within samples, and much less so between them. The contribution of Central Asian genes to the current Anatolian gene pool was quantified using three different methods, considering for comparison populations of Mediterranean Europe, and Turkic-speaking populations of Central Asia. The most reliable estimates suggest roughly 30% Central Asian admixture for both mitochondrial and Y-chromosome loci. That (admittedly approximate) figure is compatible both with a substantial immigration accompanying the arrival of the Turkmen armies (which is not historically documented), and with continuous gene flow from Asia into Anatolia, at a rate of 1% for 40 generations. Because a military invasion is expected to more deeply affect the male gene pool, similar estimates of admixture for female- and male-transmitted traits are easier to reconcile with continuous migratory contacts between Anatolia and its Asian neighbors, perhaps facilitated by the disappearance of a linguistic barrier between them.
Subject(s)
DNA, Mitochondrial/genetics , Emigration and Immigration , Genetics, Population , Y Chromosome/genetics , Adult , Asia , Base Sequence , Female , Humans , Male , Microsatellite Repeats , Molecular Sequence Data , Sequence Analysis, DNA , TurkeyABSTRACT
The distribution of glyoxalase 1 (GLO1) phenotypes in eight geographical regions of Turkey was studied. The GLO1*1 allele frequency varies from 0.3630 to 0.4118, which is in good agreement with the previously estimated range of variability. Excess numbers of heterozygotes compared to the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed in all regions. The reason of this requires further investigations.
Subject(s)
Ethnicity/genetics , Genetics, Population , Lactoylglutathione Lyase/genetics , Polymorphism, Genetic/genetics , Alleles , Gene Frequency/genetics , Humans , Phenotype , TurkeyABSTRACT
Baseline data from Turkey is presented on phenotype and gene frequency distributions of three red cell enzyme systems (ESD, PGM1, PG1) and two blood groups (ABO, Rh). Examination of the distributions of these gene frequencies among the four geographic regions of Turkey showed that except for ESD, the Turkish population is genetically homogeneous. The gene frequencies observed in Turkey are compared with those in some countries in Europe and Asia.
