Maternal Genetic Ancestry and Legacy of 10(th) Century AD Hungarians

Integrating Linguistic, Archaeological and Genetic Perspectives Unfold the Origin of Ugrians

In the last year two publications shed new light on the linguistic and genomic history of ancient Uralic speakers. Here I show that these novel genetic and linguistic data are compatible with each-other and with the archaeological inferences, allowing us to formulate a very plausible hypothesis about the prehistory of Ugric speakers. Both genetic and archaeological data indicate the admixture of the Mezhovskaya population with northern forest hunters in the late Bronze Age, which gave rise to a "proto-Ugric" community. This finding is consistent with the linguistic reconstruction of the proto-Ugric language. Genetic data indicate an admixture of proto-Hungarians with early Sarmatians and early Huns, and I show that the first admixture can be reconciled with the formation of the Gorokhovo culture and its integration into the early Sarmatian Prokhorovka culture, while the second admixture corresponds to the transformation of the Sargat and Sarmatian cultures due to Xiongnu invasions.

Mitochondrial DNA haplogroup, genetic ancestry, and susceptibility to Ewing sarcoma

Based on current studies, the incidence of Ewing sarcoma (ES) varies significantly by race and ethnicity, with the disease being most common in patients of European ancestry. However, race/ethnicity has generally been self-reported rather than formally evaluated at a population level using DNA evidence. Additionally, mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of ES, yet there have been no reported studies of mitochondrial genetics in ES. Thus, we evaluated both the mitochondrial and nuclear ancestries of 420 pediatric ES patients in the United States using whole-genome sequencing. We found that the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genomes of only six (1.4 %) patients belonged to African L haplogroups, while those of 90 % of the patients belonged to macrohaplogroup R, which includes haplogroup H, the most common maternal lineage in Europe. Compared to the general US population, European haplogroups were significantly enriched in ES patients (p < 2.2e-16) and the African haplogroups are significantly impoverished (p < 4.6e-16). Using the ancestry informative markers defined in a National Genographic study, the vast majority of patients exhibited significant nuclear ancestry originating from the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, and Southwest Asia, including all six patients with African L mtDNAs. Very few had primarily African nuclear ancestry. This is the first genomic epidemiology study to simultaneously interrogate the mitochondrial and nuclear ancestries of ES patients. While supporting previous findings of enriched European ancestry in ES patients, these results also suggest alternative hypotheses for the significant contribution of mitochondrial ancestry in ES patients, as well as the protective role of African ancestry.

Tracing genetic connections of ancient Hungarians to the 6th-14th century populations of the Volga-Ural region

Most of the early Hungarian tribes originated from the Volga-Kama and South-Ural regions, where they were composed of a mixed population based on historical, philological and archaeological data. We present here the uniparental genetic makeup of the mediaeval era of these regions that served as a melting pot for ethnic groups with different linguistic and historical backgrounds. Representing diverse cultural contexts, the new genetic data originate from ancient proto-Ob-Ugric people from Western Siberia (6th-13th century), the pre-Conquest period and subsisting Hungarians from the Volga-Ural region (6th-14th century) and their neighbours. By examining the eastern archaeology traits of Hungarian prehistory, we also study their genetic composition and origin in an interdisciplinary framework. We analyzed 110 deep-sequenced mitogenomes and 42 Y-chromosome haplotypes from 18 archaeological sites in Russia. The results support the studied groups' genetic relationships regardless of geographical distances, suggesting large-scale mobility. We detected long-lasting genetic connections between the sites representing the Kushnarenkovo and Chiyalik cultures and the Carpathian Basin Hungarians and confirmed the Uralic transmission of several East Eurasian uniparental lineages in their gene pool. Based on phylogenetics, we demonstrate and model the connections and splits of the studied Volga-Ural and conqueror groups. Early Hungarians and their alliances conquered the Carpathian Basin around 890 AD. Re-analysis of the Hungarian conquerors' maternal gene pool reveals numerous surviving maternal relationships in both sexes; therefore, we conclude that men and women came to the Carpathian Basin together, and although they were subsequently genetically fused into the local population, certain eastern lineages survived for centuries.

Maternal Lineages of Gepids from Transylvania

According to the written historical sources, the Gepids were a Germanic tribe that settled in the Carpathian Basin during the Migration Period. They were allies of the Huns, and an independent Gepid Kingdom arose after the collapse of the Hun Empire. In this period, the Carpathian Basin was characterized by so-called row-grave cemeteries. Due to the scarcity of historical and archaeological data, we have a poor knowledge of the origin and composition of these barbarian populations, and this is still a subject of debate. To better understand the genetic legacy of migration period societies, we obtained 46 full mitogenome sequences from three Gepid cemeteries located in Transylvania, Romania. The studied samples represent the Classical Gepidic period and illustrate the genetic make-up of this group from the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD, which is characterized by cultural markers associated with the Gepid culture in Transylvania. The genetic structure of the Gepid people is explored for the first time, providing new insights into the genetic makeup of this archaic group. The retrieved genetic data showed mainly the presence of Northwestern European mitochondrial ancient lineages in the Gepid group and all population genetic analyses reiterated the same genetic structure, showing that early ancient mitogenomes from Europe were the major contributors to the Gepid maternal genetic pool.

Genome-wide autosomal, mtDNA, and Y chromosome analysis of King Bela III of the Hungarian Arpad dynasty

The ancient Hungarians, "Madzsars", established their control of the Carpathian Basin in the late ninth century and founded the Hungarian Kingdom around 1000AD. The origin of the Magyars as a tribal federation has been much debated in the past. From the time of the conquest to the early fourteenth century they were ruled by descendants of the Arpad family. In order to learn more about the genetic origin of this family, we here analyzed the genome of Bela III one of the most prominent members of the early Hungarian dynasty that ruled the Hungarian Kingdom from 1172 to 1196. The Y-Chromosome of Bela III belongs to haplogroup R1a-Z2123 that is today found in highest frequency in Central Asia, supporting a Central Asian origin for the ruling lineage of the Hungarian kingdom. The autosomal DNA profile of Bela III, however, falls within the genetic variation of present-day east European populations. This is further supported through his mtDNA genome that belongs to haplogroup H, the most common European maternal lineage, but also found in Central Asia. However, we didn't find an exact haplotype match for Bela III. The typical autosomal and maternal Central Eastern European ancestry among Bela III autosomes might be best explained by consecutive intermarriage with local European ruling families.

Maternal Lineages from 10-11th Century Commoner Cemeteries of the Carpathian Basin

Nomadic groups of conquering Hungarians played a predominant role in Hungarian prehistory, but genetic data are available only from the immigrant elite strata. Most of the 10-11th century remains in the Carpathian Basin belong to common people, whose origin and relation to the immigrant elite have been widely debated. Mitogenome sequences were obtained from 202 individuals with next generation sequencing combined with hybridization capture. Median joining networks were used for phylogenetic analysis. The commoner population was compared to 87 ancient Eurasian populations with sequence-based (Fst) and haplogroup-based population genetic methods. The haplogroup composition of the commoner population markedly differs from that of the elite, and, in contrast to the elite, commoners cluster with European populations. Alongside this, detectable sub-haplogroup sharing indicates admixture between the elite and the commoners. The majority of the 10-11th century commoners most likely represent local populations of the Carpathian Basin, which admixed with the eastern immigrant groups (which included conquering Hungarians).

Mitochondrial DNA Profiles of Individuals from a 12th Century Necropolis in Feldioara (Transylvania)

The genetic signature of modern Europeans is the cumulated result of millennia of discrete small-scale exchanges between multiple distinct population groups that performed a repeated cycle of movement, settlement, and interactions with each other. In this study we aimed to highlight one such minute genetic cycle in a sea of genetic interactions by reconstructing part of the genetic story of the migration, settlement, interaction, and legacy of what is today the Transylvanian Saxon. The analysis of the mitochondrial DNA control region of 13 medieval individuals from Feldioara necropolis (Transylvania region, Romania) reveals a genetically heterogeneous group where all identified haplotypes are different. Most of the perceived maternal lineages are of Western Eurasian origin, except for the Central Asiatic haplogroup C seen in only one sample. Comparisons with historical and modern populations describe the contribution of the investigated Saxon settlers to the genetic history of this part of Europe.

Early medieval genetic data from Ural region evaluated in the light of archaeological evidence of ancient Hungarians

The ancient Hungarians originated from the Ural region of Russia, and migrated through the Middle-Volga region and the Eastern European steppe into the Carpathian Basin during the ninth century AD. Their Homeland was probably in the southern Trans-Ural region, where the Kushnarenkovo culture was disseminated. In the Cis-Ural region Lomovatovo and Nevolino cultures are archaeologically related to ancient Hungarians. In this study we describe maternal and paternal lineages of 36 individuals from these regions and nine Hungarian Conquest period individuals from today's Hungary, as well as shallow shotgun genome data from the Trans-Uralic Uyelgi cemetery. We point out the genetic continuity between the three chronological horizons of Uyelgi cemetery, which was a burial place of a rather endogamous population. Using phylogenetic and population genetic analyses we demonstrate the genetic connection between Trans-, Cis-Ural and the Carpathian Basin on various levels. The analyses of this new Uralic dataset fill a gap of population genetic research of Eurasia, and reshape the conclusions previously drawn from tenth to eleventh century ancient mitogenomes and Y-chromosomes from Hungary.

Determination of the phylogenetic origins of the Árpád Dynasty based on Y chromosome sequencing of Béla the Third

We set out to identify the origins of the Árpád Dynasty based on genome sequencing of DNA derived from the skeletal remains of Hungarian King Béla III (1172–1196) and eight additional individuals (six males, two females) originally interred at the Royal Basilica of Székesfehérvár. Y-chromosome analysis established that two individuals, Béla III and HU52 assign to haplogroups R-Z2125 whose distribution centres near South Central Asia with subsidiary expansions in the regions of modern Iran, the Volga Ural region and the Caucasus. Out of a cohort of 4340 individuals from these geographic areas, we acquired whole-genome data from 208 individuals derived for the R-Z2123 haplogroup. From these data we have established that the closest living kin of the Árpád Dynasty are R-SUR51 derived modern day Bashkirs predominantly from the Burzyansky and Abzelilovsky districts of Bashkortostan in the Russian Federation. Our analysis also reveals the existence of SNPs defining a novel Árpád Dynasty specific haplogroup R-ARP. Framed within the context of a high resolution R-Z2123 phylogeny, the ancestry of the first Hungarian royal dynasty traces to the region centering near Northern Afghanistan about 4500 years ago and identifies the Bashkirs as their closest kin, with a separation date between the two populations at the beginning of the first millennium CE.

Genetic insights into the social organisation of the Avar period elite in the 7th century AD Carpathian Basin

After 568 AD the Avars settled in the Carpathian Basin and founded the Avar Qaganate that was an important power in Central Europe until the 9th century. Part of the Avar society was probably of Asian origin; however, the localisation of their homeland is hampered by the scarcity of historical and archaeological data. Here, we study mitogenome and Y chromosomal variability of twenty-six individuals, a number of them representing a well-characterised elite group buried at the centre of the Carpathian Basin more than a century after the Avar conquest. The studied group has maternal and paternal genetic affinities to several ancient and modern East-Central Asian populations. The majority of the mitochondrial DNA variability represents Asian haplogroups (C, D, F, M, R, Y and Z). The Y-STR variability of the analysed elite males belongs only to five lineages, three N-Tat with mostly Asian parallels and two Q haplotypes. The homogeneity of the Y chromosomes reveals paternal kinship as a cohesive force in the organisation of the Avar elite strata on both social and territorial level. Our results indicate that the Avar elite arrived in the Carpathian Basin as a group of families, and remained mostly endogamous for several generations after the conquest.

Y-chromosome haplogroups from Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian period nomadic people of the Carpathian Basin

Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian nomadic groups arrived to the Carpathian Basin from the Eurasian Steppes and significantly influenced its political and ethnical landscape, however their origin remains largely unknown. In order to shed light on the genetic affinity of above groups we have determined Y chromosomal haplogroups and autosomal loci, suitable to predict biogeographic ancestry, from 49 individuals, supposed to represent the power/military elit. Haplogroups from the Hun-age are consistent with Xiongnu ancestry of European Huns. Most of the Avar-age individuals carry east Eurasian Y haplogroups typical for modern north-eastern Siberian and Buryat populations and their autosomal loci indicate mostly un-admixed Asian characteristics. In contrast the conquering Hungarians seem to be a recently assembled population incorporating un-admixed European, Asian as well as admixed components. Their heterogeneous paternal and maternal lineages indicate similar supposed phylogeographic origin of males and females, derived from Central-Inner Asian and European Pontic Steppe sources.

Impact of DNA degradation on massively parallel sequencing-based autosomal STR, iiSNP, and mitochondrial DNA typing systems

Biological samples, including skeletal remains exposed to environmental insults for extended periods of time, exhibit increasing levels of DNA damage and fragmentation. Human forensic identification methods typically use a combination of mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequencing and short tandem repeat (STR) analysis, which target segments of DNA ranging from 80 to 500 base pairs (bps). Larger templates are often unavailable as skeletal samples age and the associated DNA degrades. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci target shorter templates and may serve as a solution to the problem. Recently developed assays for STR and SNP analysis using a massively parallel sequencing approach, such as the ForenSeq kit (Verogen, San Diego, CA), offer a means for generating results from degraded samples as they target templates down to 60 to 170 bps. We performed a modeling study that demonstrates that SNPs can increase the significance of an identification when analyzing DNA down to an average size of 100 bps for input amounts between 0.375 and 1 ng of nuclear DNA. Observations from this study were then compared with human skeletal material results (n = 14, ninth to eighteenth centuries), which further demonstrated the utility of the ForenSeq kit for degraded samples. The robustness of the Promega PowerSeq™ Mito System was also tested with human skeletal remains (n = 70, ninth to eighteenth centuries), resulting in successful coverage of 99.29% of the mtDNA control region at 50× coverage or more. This was accompanied by modifications to a mainstream DNA extraction technique for skeletal remains that improved recovery of shorter templates.

Y-chromosomal connection between Hungarians and geographically distant populations of the Ural Mountain region and West Siberia

Hungarians who live in Central Europe today are one of the westernmost Uralic speakers. Despite of the proposed Volga-Ural/West Siberian roots of the Hungarian language, the present-day Hungarian gene pool is highly similar to that of the surrounding Indo-European speaking populations. However, a limited portion of specific Y-chromosomal lineages from haplogroup N, sometimes associated with the spread of Uralic languages, link modern Hungarians with populations living close to the Ural Mountain range on the border of Europe and Asia. Here we investigate the paternal genetic connection between these spatially separated populations. We reconstruct the phylogeny of N3a4-Z1936 clade by using 33 high-coverage Y-chromosomal sequences and estimate the coalescent times of its sub-clades. We genotype close to 5000 samples from 46 Eurasian populations to show the presence of N3a4-B539 lineages among Hungarians and in the populations from Ural Mountain region, including Ob-Ugric-speakers from West Siberia who are geographically distant but linguistically closest to Hungarians. This sub-clade splits from its sister-branch N3a4-B535, frequent today among Northeast European Uralic speakers, 4000-5000 ya, which is in the time-frame of the proposed divergence of Ugric languages.

Mitogenomic data indicate admixture components of Central-Inner Asian and Srubnaya origin in the conquering Hungarians

It has been widely accepted that the Finno-Ugric Hungarian language, originated from proto Uralic people, was brought into the Carpathian Basin by the conquering Hungarians. From the middle of the 19th century this view prevailed against the deep-rooted Hungarian Hun tradition, maintained in folk memory as well as in Hungarian and foreign written medieval sources, which claimed that Hungarians were kinsfolk of the Huns. In order to shed light on the genetic origin of the Conquerors we sequenced 102 mitogenomes from early Conqueror cemeteries and compared them to sequences of all available databases. We applied novel population genetic algorithms, named Shared Haplogroup Distance and MITOMIX, to reveal past admixture of maternal lineages. Our results show that the Conquerors assembled from various nomadic groups of the Eurasian steppe. Population genetic results indicate that they had closest connection to the Onogur-Bulgar ancestors of Volga Tatars. Phylogenetic results reveal that more than one third of the Conqueror maternal lineages were derived from Central-Inner Asia and their most probable ultimate sources were the Asian Scythians and Asian Huns, giving support to the Hungarian Hun tradition. The rest of the lineages most likely originated from the Bronze Age Potapovka-Poltavka-Srubnaya cultures of the Pontic-Caspian steppe. Available data imply that the Conquerors did not have a major contribution to the gene pool of the Carpathian Basin.

Iron Age Italic population genetics: the Piceni from Novilara (8th-7th century BC)

BACKGROUND

Archaeological data provide evidence that Italy, during the Iron Age, witnessed the appearance of the first communities with well defined cultural identities. To date, only a few studies report genetic data about these populations and, in particular, the Piceni have never been analysed.

AIMS

To provide new data about mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variability of an Iron Age Italic population, to understand the contribution of the Piceni in shaping the modern Italian gene pool and to ascertain the kinship between some individuals buried in the same grave within the Novilara necropolis.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

In a first set of 10 individuals from Novilara, we performed deep sequencing of the HVS-I region of the mtDNA, combined with the genotyping of 22 SNPs in the coding region and the analysis of several autosomal markers.

RESULTS

The results show a low nucleotide diversity for the inhabitants of Novilara and highlight a genetic affinity of this ancient population with the current inhabitants of central Italy. No family relationship was observed between the individuals analysed here.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides a preliminary characterisation of the mtDNA variability of the Piceni of Novilara, as well as a kinship assessment of two peculiar burials.

Whole mitochondrial genome diversity in two Hungarian populations

Complete mitochondrial genomics is an effective tool for studying the demographic history of human populations, but there is still a deficit of mitogenomic data in European populations. In this paper, we present results of study of variability of 80 complete mitochondrial genomes in two Hungarian populations from eastern part of Hungary (Szeged and Debrecen areas). The genetic diversity of Hungarian mitogenomes is remarkably high, reaching 99.9% in a combined sample. According to the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), European populations showed a low, but statistically significant level of between-population differentiation (Fst = 0.61%, p = 0), and two Hungarian populations demonstrate lack of between-population differences. Phylogeographic analysis allowed us to identify 71 different mtDNA sub-clades in Hungarians, sixteen of which are novel. Analysis of ancestry-informative mtDNA sub-clades revealed a complex genetic structure associated with the genetic impact of populations from different parts of Eurasia, though the contribution from European populations is the most pronounced. At least 8% of ancestry-informative haplotypes found in Hungarians demonstrate similarity with East and West Slavic populations (sub-clades H1c23a, H2a1c1, J2b1a6, T2b25a1, U4a2e, K1c1j, and I1a1c), while the influence of Siberian populations is not so noticeable (sub-clades A12a, C4a1a, and probably U4b1a4).

Detection of mitochondrial haplogroups in a small avar-slavic population from the eigth-ninth century AD

OBJECTIVES

In the sixth century AD, Avars came to Central Europe from middle Eurasian steppes and founded a strong Empire called the Avar Khagante (568-799/803 AD) in the Pannonian basin. During the existence of this empire, they undertook many military and pugnacious campaigns. In the seventh century, they conquered the northern territory inhabited by Slavs, who were further recruited in Avar military and were commissioned with obtaining food supplies. During almost 200 years of Avar domination, a significant influence by the Avar culture (especially on the burial rite) and assimilation with indigenous population (occurrence of "East Asian"cranial features) could be noticed in this mixed area, which is supported by achaeological and anthropologcal research. Therefore we expected higher incidence of east Eurasian haplogroups (introduced by Avars) than the frequencies detected in present-day central European populations.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Mitochondrial DNA from 62 human skeletal remains excavated from the Avar-Slavic burial site Cífer-Pác (Slovakia) dated to the eighth and ninth century was analyzed by the sequencing of hypervariable region I and selected parts of coding region. Obtained haplotypes were compared with other present-day and historical populations and genetic distances were calculated using standard statistical method.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In total, the detection of mitochondrial haplogroups was possible in 46 individuals. Our results prooved a higher frequency of east Eurasian haplogroups in our analyzed population (6.52%) than in present-day central European populations. However, it is almost three times lower than the frequency of east Eurasian haplogroups detected in other medieval Avar populations. The statistical analysis showed a greater similarity and the lowest genetic distances between the Avar-Slavic burial site Cifer-Pac and medieval European populations than the South Siberian, East and Central Asian populations.

CONCLUSION

Our results indicate that the transfer of Avar genetic variation through their mtDNA was rather weak in the analyzed mixed population.

Revising mtDNA haplotypes of the ancient Hungarian conquerors with next generation sequencing

As part of the effort to create a high resolution representative sequence database of the medieval Hungarian conquerors we have resequenced the entire mtDNA genome of 24 published ancient samples with Next Generation Sequencing, whose haplotypes had been previously determined with traditional PCR based methods. We show that PCR based methods are prone to erroneous haplotype or haplogroup determination due to ambiguous sequence reads, and many of the resequenced samples had been classified inaccurately. The SNaPshot method applied with published ancient DNA authenticity criteria is the most straightforward and cheapest PCR based approach for testing a large number of coding region SNP-s, which greatly facilitates correct haplogroup determination.