Journal
PLOS GENETICS
Volume 11, Issue 4, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005068
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Funding
- European Union European Regional Development Fund through the Centre of Excellence in Genomics for the Estonian Biocentre
- University of Tartu
- Estonian Institutional Research [IUT24-1]
- European Commission [205419 ECOGENE]
- Estonian Science Foundation [nr8973]
- Estonian Basic Research Grant [SF 0270177s08]
- Russian Federation [MK-2845.2014.4]
- Russian Academy of Sciences Program for Fundamental Research Biodiversity and dynamics of gene pools
- Federal Agency of Education and Science of the Russian Federation [02.740.11.0701, P325]
- Russian Foundation for Basic Research [11-04-00652_a]
- Russian Foundation for Humanities [13-11-02014/U]
- Committee for Coordination Science and Technology Development of Republic of Uzbekistan [FA-A6-T180]
- Estonian Government [SF0180142s08]
- Center of Excellence in Genomics (EXCEGEN)
- University of Tartu [SP1GVARENG]
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The Turkic peoples represent a diverse collection of ethnic groups defined by the Turkic languages. These groups have dispersed across a vast area, including Siberia, Northwest China, Central Asia, East Europe, the Caucasus, Anatolia, the Middle East, and Afghanistan. The origin and early dispersal history of the Turkic peoples is disputed, with candidates for their ancient homeland ranging from the Transcaspian steppe to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. Previous genetic studies have not identified a clear-cut unifying genetic signal for the Turkic peoples, which lends support for language replacement rather than demic diffusion as the model for the Turkic language's expansion. We addressed the genetic origin of 373 individuals from 22 Turkic-speaking populations, representing their current geographic range, by analyzing genome-wide high-density genotype data. In agreement with the elite dominance model of language expansion most of the Turkic peoples studied genetically resemble their geographic neighbors. However, western Turkic peoples sampled across West Eurasia shared an excess of long chromosomal tracts that are identical by descent (IBD) with populations from present-day South Siberia and Mongolia (SSM), an area where historians center a series of early Turkic and non-Turkic steppe polities. While SSM matching IBD tracts (> 1cM) are also observed in non-Turkic populations, Turkic peoples demonstrate a higher percentage of such tracts (p-values <= 0.01) compared to their non-Turkic neighbors. Finally, we used the ALDER method and inferred admixture dates (similar to 9th-17th centuries) that overlap with the Turkic migrations of the 5th-16th centuries. Thus, our results indicate historical admixture among Turkic peoples, and the recent shared ancestry with modern populations in SSM supports one of the hypothesized homelands for their nomadic Turkic and related Mongolic ancestors.
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