Ancient genomic time transect from the Central Asian Steppe unravels the history of the Scythians.

The Scythians were a multitude of horse-warrior nomad cultures dwelling in the Eurasian steppe during the first millennium BCE. Because of the lack of first-hand written records, little is known about the origins and relations among the different cultures. To address these questions, we produced genome-wide data for 111 ancient individuals retrieved from 39 archaeological sites from the first millennia BCE and CE across the Central Asian Steppe. We uncovered major admixture events in the Late Bronze Age forming the genetic substratum for two main Iron Age gene-pools emerging around the Altai and the Urals respectively. Their demise was mirrored by new genetic turnovers, linked to the spread of the eastern nomad empires in the first centuries CE. Compared to the high genetic heterogeneity of the past, the homogenization of the present-day Kazakhs gene pool is notable, likely a result of 400 years of strict exogamous social rules.

Testing Central and Inner Asian admixture among contemporary Hungarians.

Historically, the Carpathian Basin was the final destination for many nomadic peoples who migrated westward from Inner and Central Asia towards Europe. Proto-Hungarians (Steppe Magyars) were among those who came from the East, the Eurasian Steppe in the early middle ages. In order to detect the paternal genetic contribution from nomadic Steppe tribes, we tested 966 samples from Central Asian (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan), Inner Asian (Mongolians and Buryats in Mongolia) and Hungarian-speaking European (Hungarian, Sekler and Csango) populations. We constructed median-joining networks of certain haplogroups in Hungarian-speaking European, and Altaic-speaking Central and Inner Asian populations. We estimated that the possible paternal genetic contribution from the above described populations among contemporary Hungarian speaking populations ranged between 5% and 7.4%. It is lowest among Hungarians from Hungary (5.1%), while higher among Hungarian-speaking groups in Romania, notably Sekler (7.4%) and Csango (6.3%). However, these results represent only an upper limit. Actual Central/Inner Asian admixture might be somewhat lower as some of the related lineages may have come from a common third source. The main haplogroups responsible for the Central/Inner Asian admixture among Hungarians are J2*-M172 (xM47, M67, M12), J2-L24, R1a-Z93; Q-M242 and E-M78. Earlier studies showed very limited Uralic genetic influence among Hungarians, and based on the present study, Altaic/Turkic genetic contribution is also not significant, although significantly higher than the Uralic one. The conclusion of this study is that present-day Hungarian speakers are genetically very similar to neighbouring populations, isolated Hungarian speaking groups having relatively higher presence of Central and Inner Asian genetic elements. At the same time, the reliable historical and genetic conclusions require an extension of the study to a significantly larger database with deep haplogroup resolution, including ancient DNA data.

Spectrophotometric determination of the dissociation constants of crown ethers with grafted acridone unit in methanol based on Benesi-Hildebrand evaluation.

As potential chromo- and fluorophores for optical sensors a number of acridone grafted crown ethers containing NO2 group(s) and/or Br or Cl atom(s) in the aromatic rings (compounds) were studied by spectrophotometric method. In the first step of this work the acid-base and complexing properties of these compounds as well as those of the acridone, thioacridone and 4,5-dinitroacridone were investigated. Compounds proved to be very week acids and therefore the conventional spectrophotometric method based on the measurement of the ratio of the protonated/deprotonated forms of the compounds was not applicable for the determination of the dissociation constants (pKa values). Thus, a new spectrophotometric approach was elaborated for the pKa determination of these compounds, which is based on spectrophotometric titration in methanol with strong base and the titration results were evaluated by the Benesi-Hildebrand method. (In the studies with TEAOH, TMAOH and LiOMe, the complex formation between the ionophores and the cations of the bases could be excluded.) As it was expected, the experimentally determined pKa values depended on the nature of the substituents of the acridone moiety and pKa values ranged between 12.6 and 14.9. The lower pKa value of thioacridone compared to the acridone can be explained by the larger size of the sulfur atom. The outstandingly larger pKa value for 4,5-dinitroacridone can be attributed to the formation of intramolecular hydrogen-bonds between the ortho-position nitro group and the NH proton. As a trend, the strong electron withdrawing nitro substituents decreased considerably the pKa values of compounds and compared to that of the halogen (Cl and Br) atoms (for example compounds and) of weaker withdrawing effect.