Phylogenetic study of the Hungarian-speaking Baranja (Croatia) and Zobor region (Slovakia) populations

Abstract

In this study, we delved into the uniparental genetic lineage of Hungarian-speaking minorities residing in rural villages of Baranja and the Zobor region, located in contemporary Croatia and Slovakia, respectively. Our focus was on identifying ancestral patterns by examining genetic markers distributed across the entire mitogenome and on the Y-chromosomes. This allowed us to discern disparities in regional genetic structures within these communities. By integrating our newly acquired genetic data from a total of 168 participants with pre-existing Eurasian and ancient DNA datasets, our goal was to enrich the understanding of the genetic history trajectories of Carpathian Basin populations. Our findings suggest that while population-based analyses may not be sufficiently robust to detect fine-scale uniparental genetic patterns with the sample sizes at hand, phylogenetic analysis of Short Tandem Repeat (STR) data and mitogenome sequences did uncover multiple lineage ties to far-flung regions and eras. While the predominant portions of both paternal and maternal DNA align with the East-Central European spectrum, rarer subhaplogroups and lineages have unveiled ancient ties to both prehistoric and historic populations spanning Europe and Eastern Eurasia. This research augments the expansive field of phylogenetics, offering critical perspectives on the genetic constitution and heritage of the communities of East-Central Europe.