Uniparental Genetic Heritage of Belarusians: Encounter of Rare Middle Eastern Matrilineages with a Central European Mitochondrial DNA Pool

Ethnic Belarusians make up more than 80% of the nine and half million people inhabiting the Republic of Belarus. Belarusians together with Ukrainians and Russians represent the East Slavic linguistic group, largest both in numbers and territory, inhabiting East Europe alongside Baltic-, Finno-Permic- and Turkic-speaking people. Till date, only a limited number of low resolution genetic studies have been performed on this population. Therefore, with the phylogeographic analysis of 565 Y-chromosomes and 267 mitochondrial DNAs from six well covered geographic sub-regions of Belarus we strove to complement the existing genetic profile of eastern Europeans. Our results reveal that around 80% of the paternal Belarusian gene pool is composed of R1a, I2a and N1c Y-chromosome haplogroups – a profile which is very similar to the two other eastern European populations – Ukrainians and Russians. The maternal Belarusian gene pool encompasses a full range of West Eurasian haplogroups and agrees well with the genetic structure of central-east European populations. Our data attest that latitudinal gradients characterize the variation of the uniparentally transmitted gene pools of modern Belarusians. In particular, the Y-chromosome reflects movements of people in central-east Europe, starting probably as early as the beginning of the Holocene. Furthermore, the matrilineal legacy of Belarusians retains two rare mitochondrial DNA haplogroups, N1a3 and N3, whose phylogeographies were explored in detail after de novo sequencing of 20 and 13 complete mitogenomes, respectively, from all over Eurasia. Our phylogeographic analyses reveal that two mitochondrial DNA lineages, N3 and N1a3, both of Middle Eastern origin, might mark distinct events of matrilineal gene flow to Europe: during the mid-Holocene period and around the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, respectively

STR Profiling for Discrimination between Wild and Domestic Swine Specimens and between Main Breeds of Domestic Pigs Reared in Belarus

<div><p>A panel comprising 16 short tandem repeats (STRs) and a gender-specific amelogenin marker was worked out and tested for robustness in discrimination between wild and domestic swine subspecies encountered in Europe, between regional populations of wild boars and between main breeds of domestic pigs reared in Belarus. The STR dataset comprised 310 wild boars, inhabiting all administrative regions of Belarus, and 313 domestic pigs, representing three local and three cosmopolitan lines. Additionally, a total of 835 wild boars were genotyped for the presence of melanocortin 1 receptor (<i>MC1R</i>) alleles specific for domestic pigs. Correctness of assignment of STR profiles to appropriate populations was measured by log-likelihood ratios (log-LRs). All samples were correctly identified as wild boars or domestic pigs with average log-LR of 42.4 (LR = 2.6×10¹⁸). On the other hand, as many as 50 out of 835 (6.0%) genotyped wild boars from Belarus possessed <i>MC1R</i> alleles specific to domestic pigs, demonstrating supremacy of our STR profiling system over traditional differentiation between wild boars and domestic pigs, based on single binary markers. Mean log-LRs for allocation of wild boars to their regions of origin and of domestic pigs to appropriate breeds were 2.3 (LR = 9.7) and 13.4 (LR = 6.6×10⁵), respectively. Our results demonstrate the developed STR profiling system to be a highly efficient tool for differentiation between wild and domestic swine subspecies and between diverse breeds of domestic pigs as well as for verification of genetic identity of porcine specimens for the purpose of forensic investigations of wildlife crimes, assurance of veterinary public health, parentage control in animal husbandry, food safety management and traceability of livestock products.</p></div

Impact of the tested STR markers sorted in an ascending order of F_ST values on discrimination between wild boars and domestic pigs.

<p>Impact of the tested STR markers sorted in an ascending order of F_ST values on discrimination between wild boars and domestic pigs.</p

Geographic location of 6 administrative regions of Belarus, in which wild boar samples were collected (adapted from http://www.d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=4238&lang=en), compared with a two-dimensional plot obtained from MDS based on pairwise F_ST values for 6 regional wild boar populations from Belarus and for 16 STR markers analysed in the study.

<p>Geographic location of 6 administrative regions of Belarus, in which wild boar samples were collected (adapted from <a href="http://www.d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=4238&lang=en" target="_blank">http://www.d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=4238&lang=en</a>), compared with a two-dimensional plot obtained from MDS based on pairwise F_ST values for 6 regional wild boar populations from Belarus and for 16 STR markers analysed in the study.</p

Comparison of the mean number of detected alleles, mean observed (Ho) and expected (He) heterozygosity as well as the number of statistically significant deviations from HWE at the tested loci in the studied swine populations.

<p>Comparison of the mean number of detected alleles, mean observed (Ho) and expected (He) heterozygosity as well as the number of statistically significant deviations from HWE at the tested loci in the studied swine populations.</p

Characterisation of DNA markers used in the study.

<p>Characterisation of DNA markers used in the study.</p