Northern Europeans Differ from Southern Europeans

[Fieraru]

Of course they are different, anyone with eyes can tell that, why is that surprising??

North-South divide seems bigger than West-East for me. I am not very knowledgeable about genetic details however

[Joso]

The French are the bridge between those two groups in all genetic plots i've seen. Their absence will cause a gap in the Euro cluster.

Cool

[Damião de Góis]

Cool

Are you the brazilian gravedigger?

[Joso]

Are you the brazilian gravedigger?

lol

[Septentrion]

Northern Europeans Differ from Southern Europeans

An international team of scientists lead by researchers at UC Davis Health System has found that genetically, modern Europeans fall into two groups: Northern and Southern (Mediterranean).

The findings, published in Public Library of Science Genetics, provide a method for scientists to take into account European ancestry when looking for genes involved in diseases.

"Until now, little has been known about the distribution of genetic variation in European populations and how much that distribution matters in terms of doing genetic studies" said Michael Seldin, chair of the Rowe Program in Genetics. "Now we will be able to control for these differences in European populations in our efforts to find genes that cause common diseases".

Seldin and his colleagues compared genetic data for 928 individuals. They studied 5,700 single nucleotide polymorphisms

(SNPs). SNPs are changes in which a single base in the DNA differs from the usual base at that position.

The human genome contains millions of them. Some SNPs cause disease, like the one responsible for sickle cell anemia. Others are normal variations in the genome. People with common ancestry will have many SNPs in common.

They tried to find these SNPs among Europeans. "We saw a clustering of individuals that come from either southern Europe or derived from populations that left southern Europe, or the Mediterranean, in the last 2,000 years", Seldin said.

The team identified a set of 400 informative SNP markers that scientists could now use to control for European ancestry when conducting genetic studies of disease, response to drug treatment, or side effects from therapy.

The data are also of interest to study historical human migrations. The Southern grouping included individuals from the Mediterranean zone (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain), as well as Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. The Northern group included people with English, Irish, German, Swedish and Ukranian ancestry. These groups correspond to those historically and geographically divided by the Pyrenees and Alps mountain ranges.

Previous studies have found four distinct genetic human populations (groups) which SNPs correlate broadly with continental ancestry: Asia, Africa, Oceania, America and continental Europe. The new study further subdivides people with European ancestry into the Northern and Southern groups.

The researchers analyzed two sets of data to prove this. They looked at SNPs associated with rheumatoid arthritis and found that, when they corrected for ancestry, several of the genes that were previously believed to be good candidates for being involved in the disease were no longer candidates at all. They also corrected for ancestry in a data set looking at lactose intolerance. "When we did not control for differences in population structure, we got a lot of false associations", Seldin explained.

Seldin and his colleagues will soon be expanding the current European study by looking at 500,000 SNPs. They also have plans for similar studies of other continental populations and for further defining different subpopulations.

Seldin said studies of other continents and ethnic groups are necessary if science is to get the most out of the advances made by the Human Genome Project. "The ultimate aim of these studies is to be able to better define subgroups and use this information to eliminate false associations, giving us a better chance of finding true associations for disease genes", Seldin said.

Source: Softpedia

(Thank you, Groenewolf, for putting this article on Facebook)

Irish
English
Swedish
In that rank are the whitest-skinned people!

[Septentrion]

All Europeans are related and we all share ancestry. I'm very interested in genetics because I find it fascinating but really all Europeans plot on a cline and it depends on your neighbours what populations you are closest to, where you are situated in Europe and your history. But whether Greek or Irish we all share history and genetics. I'm interested in all European countries but I'm also fascinated by people from all all over the world. I love hearing about other countries. I do post on Irish topics here and Irish genetics because I know more about that topic but I do follow other populations' genetics and have an interest in that. Other than Europe I think China and Japan are fascinating countries and have such a rich history. I wouldn't mind be Japanese, Chinese or Thai. Genetics to me is just science and impartial. Basically you are closest to your neighbours and if you are in Northern Europe you will share more genetics with other Northern Europeans and if you are in Southern Europe you will be closer to other people from that vicinity. In short though Southern Europeans are of course closer to Northern Europeans. Duh!

Yes as a whole, we are similar, but the difference is what makes us who we are, and differentiates from one another. I like the diversity within the European group.'
From the swarthy, olive-skinned, brown-eyed, black-haired Italian to intermediate to fair-skinned, hazel-eyed, golden brown-haired Belgian to the fair-skinned, blond-haired, blue-eyed Swede to the pale-skinned, freckled, red-haired, green-eyed Irish! Great!

[Tietar]

Seldin and his colleagues will soon be expanding the current European study by looking at 500,000 SNPs. They also have plans for similar studies of other continental populations and for further defining different subpopulations.


12 years later we are still waiting for the results.

I was really stupid from the start to compare populations different as there are in each one of the continents, with a mixed population like the European one. But it was even more stupid to try to apply clinical methods based on it