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- Title
Reconstructing Roma history from genome-wide data.
- Authors
Moorjani, Priya; Patterson, Nick; Loh, Po-Ru; Lipson, Mark; Kisfali, Péter; Melegh, Bela I; Bonin, Michael; Kádaši, Ludevít; Rieß, Olaf; Berger, Bonnie; Reich, David; Melegh, Béla
- Abstract
The Roma people, living throughout Europe and West Asia, are a diverse population linked by the Romani language and culture. Previous linguistic and genetic studies have suggested that the Roma migrated into Europe from South Asia about 1,000-1,500 years ago. Genetic inferences about Roma history have mostly focused on the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA. To explore what additional information can be learned from genome-wide data, we analyzed data from six Roma groups that we genotyped at hundreds of thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We estimate that the Roma harbor about 80% West Eurasian ancestry-derived from a combination of European and South Asian sources-and that the date of admixture of South Asian and European ancestry was about 850 years before present. We provide evidence for Eastern Europe being a major source of European ancestry, and North-west India being a major source of the South Asian ancestry in the Roma. By computing allele sharing as a measure of linkage disequilibrium, we estimate that the migration of Roma out of the Indian subcontinent was accompanied by a severe founder event, which appears to have been followed by a major demographic expansion after the arrival in Europe.
- Publication
PloS one, 2013, Vol 8, Issue 3, pe58633
- ISSN
1932-6203
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0058633