Worldwide analysis of multiple microsatellites: Language diversity has a detectable influence on DNA diversity

• Published in: American journal of physical anthropology Vol. 133; no. 4; pp. 1137 - 1146
• Main Authors: Belle, Elise M.S., Barbujani, Guido
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01-08-2007; Wiley-Liss
• Subjects: Analysis of Variance; Biological anthropology; DNA; Evolutionary anthropology; Gene Frequency; Generalities; genetic diversity; Genetics; Genetics, Population; Geography; Humans; Language; Linguistics; microsatellite loci; Microsatellite Repeats; Organisation and history of research; Physical anthropology; Polymorphism, Genetic; Population; population genetics; Prehistory and protohistory; Social Isolation; Chalcolithic; A-Group; Middle; Geography; Study; genetic diversity; population genetics; Genetic; microsatellite loci; Language; DNA; Analysis; Classification; Distribution; Linguistics; Collection; Influence; Speech; Population
• ISSN: 0002-9483; 1096-8644
• DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.20622

Previous studies of the correlations between the languages spoken by human populations and the genes carried by the members of those populations have been limited by the small amount of genetic markers available and by approximations in the treatment of linguistic data. In this study we analyzed a large collection of polymorphic microsatellite loci (377), distributed on all autosomes, and used Ruhlen's linguistic classification, to investigate the relative roles of geography and language in shaping the distribution of human DNA diversity at a worldwide scale. For this purpose, we performed three different kinds of analysis: (i) we partitioned genetic variances at three hierarchical levels of population subdivision according to language group by means of a molecular analysis of variance (AMOVA); (ii) we quantified by a series of Mantel's tests the correlation between measures of genetic and linguistic differentiation; and (iii) we tested whether linguistic differences are increased across known zones of increased genetic change between populations. Genetic differences appear to more closely reflect geographic than linguistic differentiation. However, our analyses show that language differences also have a detectable effect on DNA diversity at the genomic level, above and beyond the effects of geographic distance. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.