The population history of the Croatian linguistic minority of Molise (southern Italy): a maternal view

Abstract

This study examines the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diversity of the Croatian-speaking minority of Molise and evaluates its potential genetic relatedness to the neighbouring Italian groups and the Croatian parental population. Intermatch, genetic distance, and admixture analyses highlighted the genetic similarity between the Croatians of Molise and the neighbouring Italian populations and demonstrated that the Croatian-Italian ethnic minority presents features lying between Croatians and Italians. This finding was confirmed by a phylogeographic approach, which revealed both the prevalence of Croatian and the penetrance of Italian maternal lineages in the Croatian community of Molise. These results suggest that there was no reproductive isolation between the two geographically proximate, yet culturally distinct populations living in Italy. The gene flow between the Croatian-Italians and the surrounding Italian populations indicate, therefore, that ethnic consciousness has not created reproductive barriers and that the Croatian-speaking minority of Molise does not represent a reproductively isolated entity.

Uniparental Markers in Italy Reveal a Sex-Biased Genetic Structure and Different Historical Strata

“…As described for other European and Italian populations [2], [6], [14], [15], [57] most of the sequences belong to the super-haplogroup H, which includes 44.4% of the Italian mtDNA lineages. In particular, H1 turned out to represent a large proportion of H samples, encompassing the 13.8% of the total variability (10.4% excluding sub-lineages).…”

Campora: A Young Genetic Isolate in South Italy

“…By the analysis of 92 sequences of individuals belonging to 46 GLs (2 for each female GL) of the HVR-I region, we described 27 different HVR-I types ( table 2 ). In a similar study [37] We also performed a study to ascertain which haplogroups, according to the main classification [23,24] contain the different HVR-I types. We characterized a set of polymorphisms describing the haplogroups typical of European, Asian and African populations and we found nine different groups in the study sample ( table 2 ).…”

Primary spontaneous pneumothorax and mitral valve prolapse are not associated

“…Croatia is a Southeastern European and Mediterranean country, and it is possible that climate, customs and traditions, language, diet, and the almost equal incidence of smoking among men and women is important [19]. Ethnic groups have diff erences in mutations and polymorphisms in specifi c genes [20].…”