Mitochondrial Gene Pool of Ukrainians in the Context of Variability of Whole Mitogenomes in Slavic Peoples

Abstract

Data on the variability of nucleotide sequences of whole mitochondrial genomes in Ukrainians were analyzed. A comparative analysis of genetic diversity parameters showed that Ukrainians, like other European populations, are characterized by a high level of mtDNA diversity. However, between-population differences in Europe are very low (FST = 0.36%, p 0.00001). According to the results of the FST-analysis, Ukrainians show the greatest similarity with Slovaks, Russians, Poles, Serbs, and Estonians. On the graph of multidimensional scaling of FST-distances, Ukrainians are located together with Western and Eastern Slavs, occupying a central position among them. The results of the analysis of the dynamics of the effective population size (Ne) showed differences in the long-term dynamics of Ne between populations of the north and south of Eastern Europe. For Ukrainians and the southwestern Russian populations, a period of sharp population growth was recorded in the Neolithic period (approximately 8.2 thousand years ago), while for Estonians and northwestern Russians, population growth was observed much later, in the Bronze Age (approximately 4.3 thousand years ago). An analysis of data on mtDNA variability in Slavic populations showed that the frequency of ethnic specific mtDNA haplotypes varies quite widely in different ethnic groups, from 1.3% in Slovaks to 10.3% in Poles. The proportion of Slavic-specific mtDNA haplotypes also varies: the least number of such haplotypes was found in Czechs and Serbs (less than 10%), and most of all in Ukrainians (23.6%).