Monday, December 13, 2010

Genetic structure in North-Central Europe with the Galore approach

I first posted this in the comments of my other blog, but it is worth a post of its own.

Here is the result of applying MCLUST to a group of Central-North European populations. The maximum number of 13 clusters is reached with 5 MDS dimensions retained:

Some clusters are population-specific (e.g., #7 for Finns, #10 for Lithuanians, #12 for Russians). Some clusters are semi-specific (e.g., #3 for Hungarians, #1 for French). Some populations are split into multiple clusters (e.g., Orcadians or Germans).

Here is a neighbor-joining tree of these 13 clusters based on the first 5 MDS dimensions:
12, 13: Russians
9, 10: Balto-Slavs
5, 3, 2, 4, 1: Northwest Europeans
11: A couple of Hungarians (*)
7, 8: Orcadians
6: Finns

I generally frown upon phylogenies for human groups, as I believe that human genetic variation is better represented as a network due to lateral gene flow. However, this tree gives an idea of the relationship between clusters.

(*) It's interesting that these 2 Hungarians are the same ones that showed an elevated "Altaic" component in my K=15 analysis.

2 comments:

  1. I could almost bet, I am one of those 2 Germans that cluster with the Hungarians.

    It recalls me that, in Davids MDS top view, I am at that side of the Germans, that border the Hungarians. In the side view I am virtually IN the Hungarian cluster.

    In a list (Third party done), that compares the actual percentages from the admixture calculation the top 10 had been:

    1. Hungarian (reference set)
    2. German (who leaned towards France and has a surname that is from the same area, where the maiden name of my fathers mother is native.
    3. Guy with a German and a Slovakian parent
    4. Swede
    5. French (reference set)
    6. Dutch
    7. French (reference set)
    8. Hungarian (reference set)
    9. Norse
    10. Hungarian (reference set)

    Thats 3 Hungarians, 2 French and a Norse, Swede, Dutch, German and Slovako-German each, in the top 10.

    (Grandparents SURNAMES (Surnames in Germany are around 500 years old and often pretty limited to lokal areas) native areas: Dutch border, French border, Poland, German and Austrian areas around the Czechian border (dont know if that name is common in Czechia itself. It translates to "Bohemian".)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree that those Hungarians are interesting. But so are those Orcadians?

    ReplyDelete