GENETIC-STRUCTURE IN RELATION TO THE HISTORY OF HUNGARIAN ETHNIC-GROUPS

The present analysis continues the study of 12 samples of 11 Hungarian ethnic groups and a collection of data from 8 foreign reference popul ations. The origin of these groups is entangled with the history of Hu ngary and specifically with the conquest of the Carpathian basin in th e ninth century A.D. Given that each of the 11 groups has preserved it s ethnic identity and assuming that genetic drift has played a major r ole, we expect that similarities and differences between the different Hungarian groups and between the Hungarian groups and the eight refer ence populations can be interpreted with respect to the controversial origin of the groups. The reference populations are those whose ancest ors had high involvement in Hungarian history, We use multivariate sta tistical methods to analyze the gene frequencies of 22 loci. The resul ts show that the Hungarian ethnic groups are genetically separate and that this separation is related to different migration waves. Accordin g to our results, Gypsies and Jews, who migrated relatively recently t o Hungary, are distant from the other groups and, as predicted, appear to be genetically close to the North Indian and Ashkenazi reference p opulations, respectively. The Oriental population is least related to the Hungarian groups, but the distance diminishes when the P1 locus, w hich shows particularly high variability, is included. Some ethnic gro ups, especially Orseg and Csango, show genetic isolation and specific affinities with the reference populations that are related to their or igin, namely, Slavs and Finns-Turks-Iranians, respectively. Other affi nities were less striking than tradition would lead us to expect. Gene flow and admixture, as revealed by the significant correlation betwee n genetic and geographic distances, may have played an important role in smoothing genetic differences between groups.