Dataset Information

Genetics of the peloponnesean populations and the theory of extinction of the medieval peloponnesean Greeks.

ABSTRACT: Peloponnese has been one of the cradles of the Classical European civilization and an important contributor to the ancient European history. It has also been the subject of a controversy about the ancestry of its population. In a theory hotly debated by scholars for over 170 years, the German historian Jacob Philipp Fallmerayer proposed that the medieval Peloponneseans were totally extinguished by Slavic and Avar invaders and replaced by Slavic settlers during the 6th century CE. Here we use 2.5 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms to investigate the genetic structure of Peloponnesean populations in a sample of 241 individuals originating from all districts of the peninsula and to examine predictions of the theory of replacement of the medieval Peloponneseans by Slavs. We find considerable heterogeneity of Peloponnesean populations exemplified by genetically distinct subpopulations and by gene flow gradients within Peloponnese. By principal component analysis (PCA) and ADMIXTURE analysis the Peloponneseans are clearly distinguishable from the populations of the Slavic homeland and are very similar to Sicilians and Italians. Using a novel method of quantitative analysis of ADMIXTURE output we find that the Slavic ancestry of Peloponnesean subpopulations ranges from 0.2 to 14.4%. Subpopulations considered by Fallmerayer to be Slavic tribes or to have Near Eastern origin, have no significant ancestry of either. This study rejects the theory of extinction of medieval Peloponneseans and illustrates how genetics can clarify important aspects of the history of a human population.

SUBMITTER: Stamatoyannopoulos G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5437898 | biostudies-other | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Genetics of the peloponnesean populations and the theory of extinction of the medieval peloponnesean Greeks.

Stamatoyannopoulos George G Bose Aritra A Teodosiadis Athanasios A Tsetsos Fotis F Plantinga Anna A Psatha Nikoletta N Zogas Nikos N Yannaki Evangelia E Zalloua Pierre P Kidd Kenneth K KK Browning Brian L BL Stamatoyannopoulos John J Paschou Peristera P Drineas Petros P

European journal of human genetics : EJHG 20170308 5

Peloponnese has been one of the cradles of the Classical European civilization and an important contributor to the ancient European history. It has also been the subject of a controversy about the ancestry of its population. In a theory hotly debated by scholars for over 170 years, the German historian Jacob Philipp Fallmerayer proposed that the medieval Peloponneseans were totally extinguished by Slavic and Avar invaders and replaced by Slavic settlers during the 6th century CE. Here we use 2.5 ...[more]

PMID: 28272534

Similar Datasets

Project description:Purpose of reviewThe prevalence of obesity continues to rise, fueling a global public health crisis characterized by dramatic increases in type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and many cancers. In the USA, several minority populations, who bear much of the obesity burden (47% in African Americans and Hispanic/Latinos, compared to 38% in European descent groups), are particularly at risk of downstream chronic disease. Compounding these disparities, most genome-wide association studies (GWAS)-including those of obesity-have largely been conducted in populations of European or East Asian ancestry. In fact, analysis of the GWAS Catalog found that while the proportion of participants of non-European or non-Asian descent had risen from 4% in 2009 to 19% in 2016, African-ancestry participants are still just 3% of GWAS, Hispanic/Latinos are < 0.5%, and other ancestries are < 0.3% or not represented at all. This review summarizes recent developments in obesity genomics in US minority populations, with the goal of reducing obesity health disparities and improving public health programs and access to precision medicine.Recent findingsGWAS of populations with the highest burden of obesity are essential to narrow candidate variants for functional follow-up, to identify additional ancestry-specific variants that contribute to individual genetic susceptibility, and to advance both public health and precision medicine approaches to obesity. Given the global public health burden posed by obesity and downstream chronic conditions which disproportionately affect non-European populations, GWAS of obesity-related traits in diverse populations is essential to (1) locate causal variants in GWAS-identified regions through fine mapping, (2) identify variants which influence obesity across ancestries through generalization, and (3) discover novel ancestry-specific variants which may be low frequency in European populations but common in other groups. Recent efforts to expand obesity genomic studies to understudied and underserved populations, including AAAGC, PAGE, and HISLA, are working to reduce obesity health disparities, improve public health, and bring the promise of precision medicine to all.

Dataset Information

Genetics of the peloponnesean populations and the theory of extinction of the medieval peloponnesean Greeks.

Publications

Genetics of the peloponnesean populations and the theory of extinction of the medieval peloponnesean Greeks.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets