Nasidze Ivan, Sarkisian Tamara, Kerimov Azer, Stoneking Mark
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Inselstrasse 22, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
Hum Genet. 2003 Mar;112(3):255-61. doi: 10.1007/s00439-002-0874-4. Epub 2002 Dec 14.
A previous analysis of mtDNA variation in the Caucasus found that Indo-European-speaking Armenians and Turkic-speaking Azerbaijanians were more closely related genetically to other Caucasus populations (who speak Caucasian languages) than to other Indo-European or Turkic groups, respectively. Armenian and Azerbaijanian therefore represent language replacements, possibly via elite dominance involving primarily male migrants, in which case genetic relationships of Armenians and Azerbaijanians based on the Y-chromosome should more closely reflect their linguistic relationships. We therefore analyzed 11 bi-allelic Y-chromosome markers in 389 males from eight populations, representing all major linguistic groups in the Caucasus. As with the mtDNA study, based on the Y-chromosome Armenians and Azerbaijanians are more closely-related genetically to their geographic neighbors in the Caucasus than to their linguistic neighbors elsewhere. However, whereas the mtDNA results show that Caucasian groups are more closely related genetically to European than to Near Eastern groups, by contrast the Y-chromosome shows a closer genetic relationship with the Near East than with Europe.
先前对高加索地区线粒体DNA变异的分析发现，说印欧语的亚美尼亚人和说突厥语的阿塞拜疆人在基因上与其他高加索人群（说高加索语）的关系，分别比与其他印欧语或突厥语群体的关系更为密切。因此，亚美尼亚语和阿塞拜疆语代表了语言替换现象，可能是通过主要涉及男性移民的精英统治实现的。在这种情况下，基于Y染色体的亚美尼亚人和阿塞拜疆人的基因关系应该更能紧密反映他们的语言关系。因此，我们分析了来自八个群体的389名男性的11个双等位基因Y染色体标记，这些群体代表了高加索地区所有主要的语言群体。与线粒体DNA研究一样，基于Y染色体，亚美尼亚人和阿塞拜疆人与高加索地区的地理邻邦在基因上的关系，比与其他地方的语言邻邦更为密切。然而，线粒体DNA研究结果显示高加索群体与欧洲群体在基因上的关系比与近东群体更为密切，相比之下，Y染色体显示出与近东的基因关系比与欧洲更为密切。
