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Scientists: modern Russians are "indigenous" Russians by only 16%
Scientists from the Genotek medical and genetic Center have determined the racial and ethnic composition of the average resident of Russia and found out that "indigenous" Russians occupy only the third place among their ancestors after representatives of Western Europe, Belarus and Ukraine, the company's press service reports.
"It is important for everyone to know where they come from and who their ancestors are. We analyzed a large amount of data and compiled an ethnic portrait of an average Russian resident. Our origins may turn out to be much more interesting than we ourselves can assume. Genes are able to tell much more than just stating the origin on the maternal and paternal lines. For example, from a DNA test, you can find out who your ancestors were and where they lived hundreds of years ago," says Valery Ilyinsky, CEO of Genotek.
Genotek deals with genetic tests and DNA analysis. DNA tests conducted by the company helped save the lives of about a hundred people suffering from rare diseases.
This data is used not only for medical purposes, but also to promote science. Recently, the company's scientists found out that the genomes of about 82% of Russians contain one of the variations in the FTO appetite gene, which makes them predisposed to fullness, which may explain the rapid spread of the obesity epidemic in Russia. In addition, scientists have found that about 83% of Russians are related to each other.
Another study was launched in September 2015. During this time, scientists have studied the genomes of more than two thousand people aged 20 to 45 years, 59% of whom were men and 41% were women. The largest number of biomaterial samples came from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, Simferopol and Kiev.
After analyzing and comparing sets of 560 thousand markers in the DNA of these people, scientists have compiled an average "portrait" of a resident of modern Russia. It turned out that the "indigenous" Russians occupy only the third place in this collective portrait – they account for only 16.2% of the genome of the "average Russian.
If we talk about the largest details, the Russians turned out to be unconditional Europeans – they account for 90% of this portrait. Another 9.7% are Asians, and 0.4% are Africans and residents of Oceania.
The "leader" in the genetic landscape of Russia is, as it would not seem strange, Western Europe – the share of immigrants from its countries accounts for 22.3% of this portrait. It is followed by Belarus and Ukraine – they account for 19.2%. In addition, Finland (13.1%), Hungary (6.3%), the Middle East (5.7%) and the Balkans (5.5%) occupy significant shares.
As scientists emphasize, we are not talking about the modern inhabitants of these countries, but about the genes that those and their Russian "relatives" inherited from their common ancestors. The genome of modern man is a mosaic: modern ethnic groups were formed as a result of the mixing of several ancient large populations, this explains that scientists find close sites in the genomes of modern people, for example, in the inhabitants of Finland and central Russia.
According to the All–Russian Census of 2010, 80.9% of the population considers themselves Russians, 3.87% – Tatars, 1.4% – Ukrainians, 1.15% – Bashkirs, 1.05% – Chuvash, 1.04% - Chechens. The share of Russian residents who consider themselves to be of other nationalities is less than 1%.
"The spirit, the soul of a person – that's where you need to look for his belonging to this or that people. How can one determine the belonging of the spirit? Of course, by the manifestation of the spirit – by thought… Whoever thinks in what language belongs to that people. I think in Russian" (V.I. Dahl) – VM.
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16.03.2017