How earthquakes in Messina, and Mt. Etna's destruction in Catania may have changed Sicilian DNA?

[Sikeliot]

I was thinking about this today when discussing Armenians on Anthrogenica, and how genocides and natural disasters can change the genetic landscape of a population.

Enna, Ragusa, and Syracuse, the southern and central part of eastern Sicily, show significant genetic impact from Greece, and have a northward genetic shift compared to west-central Sicily overall. The exception is Messina and Catania.

Many towns in Messina have been destroyed by earthquakes, with many casualties in 1700s, 1800s, and early 1900s. Similarly, Mt. Etna has destroyed several villages in Catania province. These towns were often repopulated by people from Calabria, and from western Palermo and Caltanissetta provinces, where Near Eastern genetic input is very high, much higher than in Syracuse, Ragusa or Enna.

When we see people's genetic results today from Messina especially, we notice that they are abnormally Middle Eastern for southern Italy, as is the case for people from eastern Palermo province and southern Calabria. My belief is that it is possible that before the natural disasters, the population in NE Sicily was more like modern Syracusans, and would not have been nearly as Near Eastern as they are today. Modern day Messinese and Catanese are close to Dodecanese Greeks, Sephardim, and well on their way to being like Cypriots.

Do others agree?

[MinervaItalica]

Can an earthquake really change the DNA!? I don't think so...

EDIT: Ah you mean genetic landscape. Maybe

The title is misleading. I mean, changing DNA is a bit too much for an earthquake. Perhaps a nuclear disaster can change DNA...

[Sikeliot]

Can an earthquake really change the DNA!? I don't think so...

EDIT: Ah you mean genetic landscape. Maybe

The title is misleading. I mean, changing DNA is a bit too much for an earthquake. Perhaps a nuclear disaster can change DNA...

I think there wasn't always the genetic discontinuity of a heavily MENA shifted NE Sicily and a more European shifted SE Sicily.

[Sikeliot]

Can an earthquake really change the DNA!? I don't think so...

EDIT: Ah you mean genetic landscape. Maybe

The title is misleading. I mean, changing DNA is a bit too much for an earthquake. Perhaps a nuclear disaster can change DNA...


Here is what I am saying. This is how many Messina area results come out:



# Population Percent
1 East_Med 32.94
2 West_Med 20.77
3 West_Asian 15.78
4 North_Atlantic 14.65
5 Red_Sea 7.98
6 Baltic 4.71
7 Sub-Saharan 1.73
8 Northeast_African 0.88
9 Oceanian 0.56

Single Population Sharing:

# Population (source) Distance
1 South_Italian 4.38
2 Sephardic_Jewish 5.35
3 East_Sicilian 5.65
4 Algerian_Jewish 6.71
5 Italian_Jewish 7.05
6 Central_Greek 7.19
7 Ashkenazi 7.8
8 Tunisian_Jewish 8.92
9 West_Sicilian 9.03
10 Italian_Abruzzo 9.51
11 Libyan_Jewish 9.82
12 Cyprian 11.42
13 Greek_Thessaly 13.98
14 Lebanese_Muslim 14.52
15 Syrian 15.45
16 Tuscan 15.82
17 Samaritan 17.73
18 Turkish 18.09
19 Jordanian 18.36
20 Palestinian 18.66

Mixed Mode Population Sharing:

# Primary Population (source) Secondary Population (source) Distance
1 84% South_Italian + 16% Bedouin @ 1.8
2 72.3% Cyprian + 27.7% Spanish_Extremadura @ 1.91
3 73.4% Cyprian + 26.6% Spanish_Galicia @ 1.92
4 72.6% Cyprian + 27.4% Portuguese @ 1.93
5 74% Cyprian + 26% Spanish_Castilla_Y_Leon @ 1.98
6 82.6% South_Italian + 17.4% Jordanian @ 2.09
7 82.8% South_Italian + 17.2% Palestinian @ 2.09
8 80% South_Italian + 20% Syrian @ 2.12
9 89.6% South_Italian + 10.4% Saudi @ 2.17
10 73.2% Cyprian + 26.8% Spanish_Murcia @ 2.24
11 62.1% West_Sicilian + 37.9% Lebanese_Muslim @ 2.26
12 75.6% Cyprian + 24.4% Spanish_Cantabria @ 2.35
13 74.3% Cyprian + 25.7% Spanish_Castilla_La_Mancha @ 2.38
14 74.3% Cyprian + 25.7% Spanish_Cataluna @ 2.38
15 86.3% South_Italian + 13.7% Egyptian @ 2.43
16 56.2% West_Sicilian + 43.8% Cyprian @ 2.49
17 90.2% South_Italian + 9.8% Yemenite_Jewish @ 2.51
18 80% South_Italian + 20% Lebanese_Muslim @ 2.52
19 83.3% South_Italian + 16.7% Samaritan @ 2.6
20 63.8% West_Sicilian + 36.2% Syrian @ 2.63




Now compare to someone from Ragusa:



# Population Percent
1 East_Med 28.53
2 West_Med 19.96
3 North_Atlantic 19.5
4 West_Asian 13.69
5 Baltic 9.41
6 Red_Sea 5.58
7 Sub-Saharan 0.96
8 Oceanian 0.79
9 Siberian 0.73
10 Northeast_African 0.49
11 Amerindian 0.37

Single Population Sharing:

# Population (source) Distance
1 Italian_Abruzzo 3.25
2 East_Sicilian 3.54
3 Central_Greek 3.57
4 West_Sicilian 4.28
5 South_Italian 5.72
6 Greek_Thessaly 7.33
7 Ashkenazi 7.34
8 Tuscan 9.41
9 Sephardic_Jewish 10.92
10 Italian_Jewish 11.42
11 Algerian_Jewish 11.88
12 Tunisian_Jewish 15.11
13 Bulgarian 15.58
14 North_Italian 15.69
15 Libyan_Jewish 15.75
16 Romanian 17.32
17 Cyprian 18.23
18 Turkish 20.83
19 Lebanese_Muslim 20.91
20 Serbian 21.32

Mixed Mode Population Sharing:

# Primary Population (source) Secondary Population (source) Distance
1 52.9% Italian_Abruzzo + 47.1% East_Sicilian @ 1.65
2 72% Italian_Abruzzo + 28% Ashkenazi @ 1.67
3 88.7% South_Italian + 11.3% North_Swedish @ 1.74
4 60.3% Cyprian + 39.7% French @ 1.75
5 89.2% South_Italian + 10.8% Southwest_Finnish @ 1.85
6 93.1% East_Sicilian + 6.9% West_Scottish @ 1.86
7 90.1% South_Italian + 9.9% La_Brana-1 @ 1.89
8 92.9% East_Sicilian + 7.1% Orcadian @ 1.89
9 93.1% East_Sicilian + 6.9% Irish @ 1.9
10 92.6% East_Sicilian + 7.4% Southeast_English @ 1.9
11 92.9% East_Sicilian + 7.1% North_Dutch @ 1.92
12 92.9% East_Sicilian + 7.1% Southwest_English @ 1.93
13 93.3% East_Sicilian + 6.7% Norwegian @ 1.94
14 91.1% East_Sicilian + 8.9% West_German @ 1.95
15 93% East_Sicilian + 7% Danish @ 1.95
16 89.8% South_Italian + 10.2% Finnish @ 1.96
17 91.5% East_Sicilian + 8.5% South_Dutch @ 1.98
18 92.7% East_Sicilian + 7.3% North_German @ 2
19 84.5% South_Italian + 15.5% Hungarian @ 2.04
20 93.5% East_Sicilian + 6.5% Swedish @ 2.05



There is no logical reason for such a divide in eastern Sicily. I wonder if most of those who perished in the natural disasters in Messina/Catania provinces were more "European" shifted than the modern inhabitants of the area.