A study of the Bodrogköz population in north-eastern Hungary by Y chromosomal haplotypes and haplogroups

Abstract

We have determined the distribution of Y chromosomal haplotypes and haplogroups in population samples from one of the most important areas in north-eastern Hungary from many villages in the Bodrogköz. The Bodrogköz region was chosen due to its isolated nature, because this area was a moorland encircled by the Tisza, Bodrog, and Latorca Rivers and inhabitants of this part of Hungary escaped from both Tatar and Ottoman invasions, which decimated the post-Hungarian Conquest populations in many parts of the country. Furthermore, in the first half of the tenth century, this region served as the Palatial Centre and burial grounds of the Hungarian tribes. It has thus been assumed that the present population in this area is likely to be more similar to the population that lived in the Conquest period. We analysed male-specific markers, 23 Y-STRs and more than 30 Y-SNPs, that reflect the past and recent genetic history. We found that the general haplogroup distribution of the samples showed high genetic similarity to non-Bodrogköz Hungarians and neighbouring populations, despite its sheltered location and historical record. We were able to classify the Y-chromosomal haplogroups into four large groups based on STR mutation events: pre-Roman/Roman ancient lineage, Finno-Ugric speakers arriving into the Carpathian Basin, Migration period admixture, and post-Hungarian Conquest admixture. It is clear that a significantly larger database with deep haplogroup resolution, including ancient DNA data, is required to strengthen this research.

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

“…The possible genetic relation of modern Hungarians to Finno-Ugric groups was tested in several studies [ 6 – 8 ], however all these found Hungarians being genetically unrelated to Uralic people. One of the latest studies [ 9 ] reported that a Y-chromosome haplogroup ( N-L1034 ) is shared between 4% of the Hungarian Seklers (Hungarian-speaking ethnic group living in Transylvania) and 15% of the closest language relatives the Mansis, though the same marker is also present in Central Asian Uzbeks and has been detected just in one Hungarian [ 10 ]. These results indicated that Uralic genetic links hardly exist in modern Hungarians.…”

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

“…329 samples which belonged to N3a4 clade were updated to a higher level of phylogenetic resolution within the inner-structure of N3a4. Two samples were previously assigned using chrY short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) 72 . For genotyping branch defining SNPs from N3a4 sub-clades we designed primers with Primer3 software 74,75 .…”

Genetic analysis of male Hungarian Conquerors: European and Asian paternal lineages of the conquering Hungarian tribes

“…In addition to the Uralic (Finno-Ugric) language theory, there exist others that we do not cover in our study, but the results of our genetic analyses may shed light on linguistic relations. The N haplogroup is dominant in every branch of the Uralic language family (Zerjal et al 1997), except in the Hungarians (Semino et al 2000;Csányi et al 2008;Pamjav et al 2017). The first genetic research on Hungarian Conquest period remains (Csányi et al 2008) showed that two out of four classic Hungarian Conqueror samples belonged to the N-Tat haplogroup.…”

“…Genetic testing of the modern Hungarian populations' paternal lineage showed either no or very low frequency of the (Zerjal et al 1997;Semino et al 2000;Csányi et al 2008;Fehér et al 2015;Pamjav et al 2017), which is dominant in all the other Finno-Ugric populations (Zerjal et al 1997). On the other hand, it is noteworthy that in one study, the N-Tat (M46) Y-chromosomal marker was found in 50% of the investigated tenth century CE classic Hungarian Conquerors (Csányi et al 2008).…”