Comparison of genetic and linguistic data as an approach to studying human migrations

Abstract

The origin of humans and their settling around the globe are explored using various scientific methods. Genomic profiling data increasing in volume every day are of particular interest to researchers of these problems. In the current post-genomic era, a large amount of data on the genetic profiling of human ethnic groups has been accumulated, thereby making it possible to clarify the direction of human migration and distribution across the globe. Here, we have presented a method for studying and reconstructing the migration events based on the joint analysis of data on the genetic (Y chromosomal and mitochondrial markers and single nucleotide variation panel) and linguistic (grammar features) diversity of Eurasian populations. We have shown that, on the one hand, the direction of human migrations is associated with their contacts with neighboring ethnicities, and, on the other hand, the correlation coefficient of genetic and linguistic distances is closely related to and the shape of the points cloud on the scatter plots. The presence of a significant negative correlation is a reliable migration event signal. Moreover, we have described a few patterns of correlation expected between population's genetic pool and linguistic features. The study covers such a large territory (the whole Eurasia, except the southeastern area) for the first time and is based on the representative genetic and linguistic databases.

Keywords

• coevolution of genes and languages
• gene geography
• migrations
• y chromosome
• mitochondrial dna
• snp