Does genetic memory of the Adyghe gene pool composition perpetuate itself? Genetic portraits of Adyghe tribes drawn from the new data about Y-chromosome polymorphisms
Authors:   Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moskvorechie st., 1, Moscow, 115522, Russia, Pocheshkhova Elvira A. ,   Kuban State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Mitrofana Sedina str., 4, Krasnodar, 350063, Russia, Kagazezheva Zhaneta A. ,   Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moskvorechie st., 1, Moscow, 115522, Russia,   Kuban State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Mitrofana Sedina str., 4, Krasnodar, 350063, Russia, Agdzhoyan Anastasiya T. ,   Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moskvorechie st., 1, Moscow, 115522, Russia, Zaporozhchenko Valery V. ,   Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moskvorechie st., 1, Moscow, 115522, Russia, Koshel Sergey M. ,   Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Geography, Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics, GSP 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia,   Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moskvorechie st., 1, Moscow, 115522, Russia, Balanovska Elena V., ,   Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moskvorechie st., 1, Moscow, 115522, Russia,   Biobank of Northern Eurasia, Kotlyakovsaya st., 3, Moscow, 115201, Russia
Published: January 2023

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the possibility of preserving the genetic memory of the original architectonics of Adygeans gene pool by studying the modern gene pools of ten clan groups. Materials and methods. Ten tribal populations of Adygeans as well as Ubykhs (total N=616) were studied by a unified informative panel of SNP-markers of Y-chromosome (59 SNP and 17 STR). Genetic portraits of each population were created, and their position in the multidimensional genetic space was evaluated based on the data on the 34 identified Y-haplogroups. For the most characteristic haplogroups, a cartographic analysis was performed and phylogenetic networks were created. Results. Four haplogroups were found in all Adygeans populations, making up three quarters of their general gene pool: G2-YY1215(43%), R1a-M198* (13%), G2-YY9632 (9%), J2-M172* (7%). In the genetic space of the multidimensional scaling were distinguished three clusters: "Western" united all Shapsugs and Ubykhs; "Central" – Abadzekhs, Temirgoevs, Khatukaevs; "Eastern" – Ygerukhaevs, Kabardins of Adygea. Bzhedugs, now a conglomerate of various tribes, occupy precisely an intermediate position between the 'Western' and 'Central' clusters. Mamkhegs and Besleneys were not included in any of the clusters, but joined the "Eastern cluster" by the results of other multivariate analysis methods. The cartographic atlas of the Y-chromosome variability revealed two main trends in the variability: for the haplogroup G2-YY1215 a trend of frequency decrease from west to east (from 82% for Shapsugs to 13% for Kabardins of Adygea), and an opposite trend of a small frequency decrease of G2-YY9632 from east to west. Conclusion. It was shown for the first time that the haplogroup G2-YY1215 is dominant in the gene pool of Adygeans as a whole, as well as in practically all tribal groups. Its frequency decrease from west to east, disappearing already in the Ossetians. The results allow us to consider the haplogroup G2-YY1215 as "marking" the Adyghe population. The revealed three clusters of populations and their relative position in the genetic space correspond to the historical and ethnological data and allow to reconstruct the contours of the initial architectonics of Adygeans. The phylogenetic analysis indicates the presence of a common Adygean "prapopulation" for all tribal groups, which existed about 3000 years ago and demographic growth 1500-2000 years ago.