July 18, 2007

Ancient Hungarian mtDNA

See also mtDNA of Hungarians.

Am J Phys Anthropol. 2007 Jul 13; [Epub ahead of print]

Comparison of maternal lineage and biogeographic analyses of ancient and modern Hungarian populations.

Tömöry G et al. 

The Hungarian language belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic family, but Hungarian speakers have been living in Central Europe for more than 1000 years, surrounded by speakers of unrelated Indo-European languages. In order to study the continuity in maternal lineage between ancient and modern Hungarian populations, polymorphisms in the HVSI and protein coding regions of mitochondrial DNA sequences of 27 ancient samples (10th-11th centuries), 101 modern Hungarian, and 76 modern Hungarian-speaking Sekler samples from Transylvania were analyzed. The data were compared with sequences derived from 57 European and Asian populations, including Finno-Ugric populations, and statistical analyses were performed to investigate their genetic relationships. Only 2 of 27 ancient Hungarian samples are unambiguously Asian: the rest belong to one of the western Eurasian haplogroups, but some Asian affinities, and the genetic effect of populations who came into contact with ancient Hungarians during their migrations are seen. Strong differences appear when the ancient Hungarian samples are analyzed according to apparent social status, as judged by grave goods. Commoners show a predominance of mtDNA haplotypes and haplogroups (H, R, T), common in west Eurasia, while high-status individuals, presumably conquering Hungarians, show a more heterogeneous haplogroup distribution, with haplogroups (N1a, X) which are present at very low frequencies in modern worldwide populations and are absent in recent Hungarian and Sekler populations. Modern Hungarian-speaking populations seem to be specifically European. Our findings demonstrate that significant genetic differences exist between the ancient and recent Hungarian-speaking populations, and no genetic continuity is seen.

Link

5 comments:

ley said...

We're awaiting Y-dna test results for my son, whose grandfather was born in Hungary (our surname is Hungarian, it's "Hok.") I'd like to find Hungarian y-dna haplotype info for when his results come in (sent off 11 Sept 2008. As an aside, we'll also get his mt-dna, but as that came from me it won't be exotic (well, British Isles or Native American, as I'm Southern). They say that the 1st 12 markers will give ethnic origin, & we'll get that on both the Y-dna & the mt-dna. Are you interested in the results when they come? leyhok@gmail.com

Erik the reader said...

Taka a look at:
A Y-chromosomal comparison of the Madjars (Kazakhstan) and the Magyars (Hungary).

http://www.citeulike.org/user/Archaeogenetics/article/4096556

Unknown said...

You are assuming the ancient Magyars had "Asian" DNA simply because they lived in Asia. Geographic position doesn't magically alter your DNA.

JenniSiri said...

The European mtDNA in modern day Hungary can be explained by 3 waves of German immigration into Hungary. Also, during the Austro-Hungarian empire many Hungarians worked in the Alsace-Lorraine, which is/was and has been part of France. Some worked there and returned home, some with spouses or children from there. I am 1/2 Hungarian and 1/2 Irish and my DNA test results show 2% Northeast Asian.

echkbet said...

my sons results from his y-dna test were A2a, which has supposedly been in that are of Europe as a refugium (?) since the time of the last glaciation... pre-dated the Magyars by a bit, huh?