Y‐chromosome variability and genetic history of Commons from Northern Italy

Abstract

Objectives: Genetic drift and admixture are driving forces in human evolution, but their concerted impact to population evolution in historical times and at a microgeographic scale is poorly assessed. In this study we test a demographic model encompassing both admixture and drift to the case of social-cultural isolates such as the so-called "Commons."Materials and methods: Commons are peculiar institutions of medieval origins whose key feature is the tight relationship between population and territory, mediated by the collective property of shared resources. Here, we analyze the Y-chromosomal genetic structure of four Commons (for a total of 366 samples) from the Central and Eastern Padana plain in Northern Italy.Results: Our results reveal that all these groups exhibit patterns of significant diversity reduction, peripheral/outlier position within the Italian/European genetic space and high frequency of Common-specific haplogroups. By explicitly testing different drift-admixture models, we show that a drift-only model is more probable for Central Padana Commons, while additional admixture (~20%) from external population around the same time of their foundation cannot be excluded for the Eastern ones.Discussion: Building on these results, we suggest central Middle Ages as the most probable age of foundation for three of the considered Commons, the remaining one pointing to late antiquity. We conclude that an admixture-drift model is particularly useful for interpreting the genetic structure and recent demographic history of smallscale populations in which social-cultural features play a significant role.

Twenty-Seven Y-Chromosome Short Tandem Repeats Analysis of Italian Mummies of the 16th and 18th Centuries: An Interdisciplinary Research

“…Since the Walsh method implemented in Boattini et al (2019) was originally designed for estimating TMRCA of genealogical pairs of individuals whose life span overlaps, in the present study, where pairs are instead composed by chronologically distant pairs of ancient and modern individuals, we adapted TMRCA to calculate the total number of generations separating them, which corresponds to the double of the originally provided estimate. Finally, the obtained numbers of generations were converted in years before present by using an average generation time of 33years, in agreement with genealogical-based estimates obtained from previous studies on the same geographic area ( Boattini et al, 2014 , 2019 ; Sarno et al, 2021 ).…”

Genetic characterization of two North Italian villages: A story of isolation, ancient admixture, and genetic drift

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