![Page 1: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the
Caucasus
Ivan Nasidze & Mark Stoneking
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
![Page 2: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
![Page 3: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
![Page 4: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Question: the presence of populations who are linguistically-
related to populations outside the Caucasus, such as Armenians
(who speak an Indo-European language) and Azerbaijanians
(who speak a Turkic language) raises the question as to
whether language affiliation or geographic proximity best
explains the genetic relationships of these Caucasian
populations.
![Page 5: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Analyze populations whose linguistic neighbors are not their geographic neighbors
A B C
Which best explains their genetic relationships?
A B C
Geography!
A C B
Language!
![Page 6: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Ba sq ue s
Sa rd inia
British
Sp a nish
Ira n ia nsTe h ra nIra n ia nsIsfa ha n
Turks
WAsia
Druze s
Kirg iz
Ka za kh
Ab kha zins
Ava ria ns
Ba lka ria ns
Ka ra c ha ia ns
Le zg in ia ns
O sse tia nsArd o nO sse tia nsDig o ra
Rutu lia ns
Ka b a rd in ia nsIng ushia ns
G e o rg ia ns
Da rg in ia ns
C he rke ssia ns
C he c he n ia ns
Aze rb a ija n ia nsArm e nia ns
Ab a zin ia ns
Ad yg he
SO sse tia ns
Kurd s
X
Russia ns
Sla vs
![Page 7: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Genetic markers used in our studies
We addressed this question by studying sequence variation
in the first hypervariable segment (HV1) of the mtDNA
control region, Y chromosome bi-allelic and STR markers
in the Caucasian populations.
![Page 8: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
MDS plot based on mtDNA HVI sequence data
![Page 9: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
M124 C T
M45 G A
M173 A C
M17 1bp delM9 C G
M89 C T
M201 G T
M172 T G
M170 A C
RPS4Y (M130) C T
YAP
P
RK
F
I
J
G
C
E
P1
P*
R1a1*
R1*
K*
F*
G*
J2*
I*
C*
E*
![Page 10: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
AB
IN DA
LE
AZ
GE
AR
K
OS
SV
TUR
ABK
OS_D OS_A
IR_T
IR_I
RU
LE
KA
CH
J2*
F* R1a1*
I*G*
C*
R1*
K*
E*
P*
P1
![Page 11: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
MDS plot based on Y chromosome SNP data
![Page 12: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
___________________________________________________ Caucasian Indo-Eur. Turkic speakers speakers speakers___________________________________________________Armenians (mtDNA) 0.013 0.014 - Armenians (Y-chr.) 0.053 0.146 -Azerbaijanians (mtDNA) 0.019 - 0.099Azerbaijanians (Y-chr.) 0.047 - 0.105___________________________________________________Table 1. Pairwise Fst values between Armenians, Azerbaijaniansand neighboring groups.
![Page 13: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Armenians
Indo-Europeans
Caucasians
Azerbaijanians
Turkic
Caucasians
Geography best explains genetic relationships!
Genetic relationships of Armenians and Azerbaijanians
![Page 14: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
![Page 15: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
![Page 16: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
MDS plot based on mtDNA HVI sequence data
![Page 17: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
MDS plot based on Y chromosome SNP data
Os
![Page 18: MtDNA and Y chromosome variation and language replacement in the Caucasus](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081511/56813cce550346895da67628/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Conclusions
The genetic results thus suggest that both the Armenian and Azerbaijanian languages represent language replacements via elite dominance.
Armenians and Azerbaijanians are more closely-related genetically to their geographic neighbors in the Caucasus than to their linguistic neighbors elsewhere.
Overall, we did not find correlation between linguistic and genetic classifications in the Caucasus.