Genetic studies on Russians
Genetic studies show that modern Russians are closest to Belarusians, Poles, Slovaks, Slovenes, Balts, Ukrainians and other Slavs.[1] Some ethnographers, like Zelenin, affirm that Russians overall are more similar to Belarusians and to Ukrainians than southern Russians are to northern Russians. Russians in some parts northern European Russia share genetic similarities with Balts, Finnic peoples and Baltic Finns,[1][2] who lived in modern north-central European Russia and were partly assimilated by the Slavs as the Slavs migrated northeastwards.
Y-DNA
Russians show the y-DNA R1a with frequencies ranging from 33.4% in North Russia to 49% in rest of Russia.[1][3][4] R-M17 (and sometimes alternatively defined as R-M198), is particularly common in a large region extending from South Asia and Southern Siberia to Central Europe and Scandinavia.(Underhill 2009) [5][6] The percentages of Y-chromosome markers vary in ethnic Russian populations by latitude and region.
A 2008 paper sampling 1228 people in Russia who self-identified as ethic Russians have found the following top four Y-DNA haplogroups among the sample:[1]
- Haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA) – 19.8% to 62.7%, with an average of 46.7%
- Haplogroup I (Y-DNA) – 0% to 26.8%, with an average of 17.6% (All regions), and 23.5% (Central and South Russia)
- Haplogroup N (Y-DNA) – 5.4% to 53.7%, with averages of 21.6% (All regions), and 10% (Central and South Russia)
- Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA) – 0% to 14%, with an average of 5.8%
Eight Y chromosome haplogroup subclades, of West Eurasian origin, presented an average frequency greater than 1%, including R1a, N3, I1b, R1b, I1a, J2, N2, and E3b. All together, they account for >95% of the total Russian Y chromosomal pool. Of the 1228 samples, 11/1228 (0.9%) were classified up to the root level of haplogroups F and K. Only 9/1228 samples (0.7%) fell into haplogroups C, Q, and R2 which are specific to East and South Asian populations.[1]
mtDNA
The mitochondrial gene pool of Russians are represented by mtDNA types belonging to typical West Eurasian groups. East Eurasian admixture was shown to be minimal and existed in low frequencies in the form of Haplogroup M.[7][8] The same studies indicate West Eurasian haplogroups present at a frequency of 97.8% and 98.5% among a sample of 325 and 201 Russians respectively.[7][8]
A recent study, while precising that "the genetic distances from the Russians to the European language groups indicate that the gene pool of present-day Russians bears the influence of Slavic, Baltic, Finno-Ugric and, to a lesser extent, Germanic groups, as well as Iranian and Turkic groups", uphold the traditionally held genetic differentiation between Northern and Southern Russians, with the decisive ethnic element being the Finno-Ugric one, more important in the north, the southern population having substantial - generally unacknowledged in historical debates about Russian ethnogenesis - Germanic influence.[9]
Autosomal DNA
Autosomally, Russians are similar to populations in Eastern Europe.[10]
References
- Balanovsky, O; Rootsi, S; Pshenichnov, A; et al. (January 2008). "Two sources of the Russian patrilineal heritage in their Eurasian context". American Journal of Human Genetics. 82 (1): 236–50. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.09.019. PMC 2253976. PMID 18179905.
- "Новости NEWSru.com :: Ученые завершили масштабное исследование генофонда русского народа (Фотороботы)". Newsru.com. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
- Rosser et al. (2000)
- Tambets et al. (2004).
- Semino et al. (2000), "The Genetic Legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in Extant Europeans: A Y Chromosome Perspective"
- Luca, F.; Giacomo, F. Di; Benincasa, T.; et al. (2007). "Y-Chromosomal Variation in the Czech Republic" (PDF). American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 132 (1): 132–139. doi:10.1002/ajpa.20500. hdl:2108/35058. PMID 17078035.
- Malyarchuk, BA; Grzybowski, T; Derenko, MV; Czarny, J; Woźniak, M; Miścicka-Sliwka, D (April 2002). "Mitochondrial DNA variability in Poles and Russians" (PDF). Annals of Human Genetics. 66 (4): 261–283. doi:10.1046/j.1469-1809.2002.00116.x. PMID 12418968. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-17. Retrieved 2016-05-14.
- Malyarchuk, B; Derenko, M; Grzybowski, T; et al. (December 2004). "Differentiation of Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosomes in Russian Populations" (PDF). Human Biology. 76 (6): 877–900. doi:10.1353/hub.2005.0021. PMID 15974299.
- Morozova, I; Evsyukov, A; Kon'Kov, A; Grosheva, A; Zhukova, O; Rychkov, S (March 2012). "Russian ethnic history inferred from mitochondrial DNA diversity". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 147 (3): 341–351. doi:10.1002/ajpa.21649. PMID 22183855.
- Khrunin, Andrey V. (March 7, 2013). "A Genome-Wide Analysis of Populations from European Russia Reveals a New Pole of Genetic Diversity in Northern Europe". PLOS ONE. 8 (3): e58552. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...858552K. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058552. PMC 3591355. PMID 23505534.