Some effects of recent migrations on similarity between biological structures of regional populations in Italy

Abstract

The biological structure of the regional Italian populations, defined by gene frequency distributions of erythrocytic markers, was analysed according to the strong migratory movements of the Italian population over recent decades. The analyses were conducted by means of principal components analysis on a sample representative of native and resident populations. This vastly larger resident population was subdivided into two groups, representing before and after the more marked migratory movements. The analysis shows that, with the exception of Sardegna, there is a trend toward greater overall homogeneity among the regional populations. The north-south distinction has tended to diminish. But while the northern regions have become more homogeneous with regard to each other, this difference between southern regions—especially those exclusively influenced by emigration—has been accentuated.