This study examines anthropometrically assessed nutritional status of the Bayash, the Roma population from the eastern Croatian region of Baranya, and compares it to the non-Roma general population ...of eastern Croatia. The analysis of nutritional status and diets is a segment of multidisciplinary anthropological and epidemiological survey of the Roma minority population in Croatia began in 2005. The Bayash are an ethnic group that arrived to Croatia from Romania most likely in the 19th century and speaks a distinct archaic dialect of the Romanian language. The Roma population of Baranya approximates 1,000 according to the 2001 census. The Bayash sample comprised 227 adults aged 18-65yrs. The women fall below the Croatian 10th percentile for stature and men track about the 10th percentile. Both sexes approximate the 25th percentile for body weight. Despite their diminutive size, the Bayash appear to have adequate nutritional status until the age of 35yrs after which their average BMI exceeds the value of 25 kg/m(2) and falls in the overweight category. However, 8% of Bayash are underweight (BMI<18.5) in contrast to 1% of the majority population in the region. Underweight rates are especially high in women (11%) compared to men (4%). The prevalence of overweight (BMI 25.0 to 29.9) of 30% is considerably lower than in the majority population (42%) while the prevalence of obesity (BMI>or=30.0) of 23% is approximately equal. Overall unsatisfactory nutritional status of the Bayash merits attention. It appears to be the product of unhealthy dietary habits and their socio-economic deprivation that resulted from their poor education and extremely high unemployment.
Considerable uncertainty exists regarding the genetic architecture underlying common late-onset human diseases. In particular, the contribution of deleterious recessive alleles has been predicted to ...be greater for late-onset than for early-onset traits. We have investigated the contribution of recessive alleles to human hypertension by examining the effects of inbreeding on blood pressure (BP) as a quantitative trait in 2760 adult individuals from 25 villages within Croatian island isolates. We found a strong linear relationship between the inbreeding coefficient (F) and both systolic and diastolic BP, indicating that recessive or partially recessive quantitative trait locus (QTL) alleles account for 10-15% of the total variation in BP in this population. An increase in F of 0.01 corresponded to an increase of approximately 3 mm Hg in systolic and 2 mm Hg in diastolic BP. Regression of F on BP indicated that at least several hundred (300-600) recessive QTL contribute to BP variability. A model of the distribution of locus effects suggests that the 8-16 QTL of largest effect together account for a maximum of 25% of the dominance variation, while the remaining 75% of the variation is mediated by QTL of very small effect, unlikely to be detectable using current technologies and sample sizes. We infer that recent inbreeding accounts for 36% of all hypertension in this population. The global impact of inbreeding on hypertension may be substantial since, although inbreeding is declining in Western societies, an estimated 1 billion people globally show rates of consanguineous marriages >20%.
Eight Y chromosome short tandem repeat (STR) polymorphisms (DYS19, DYS385, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393) were analyzed in Macedonians (
n
=
84) and Macedonian Romani ethnic group ...(
n
=
68). Observed allelic frequency distribution and locus diversity values in Macedonians correspond closer to neighboring southeastern European populations than (mostly) western European populations, whereas observed allelic frequency distribution and locus diversity values in Macedonian Romani, as expected based on their Asian (Indian) origin, differ from both neighboring southeastern and (mostly) western European populations. Sixty-six (78.57%) haplotypes appeared in single copies in Macedonians and 15 (22.06%) in Macedonian Romani. The most frequent Macedonian haplotypes (DYS19-DYS385-DYS389I-DYS389II-DYS390-DYS391-DYS392-DYS393) 16-14/15-13-31-24-11-11-13 and 13-16/18-13-30-24-10-11-13 were found in 7 and 6 copies, respectively. The most frequent Macedonian Romani haplotype 15-15/17-14-29-22-10-11-12 was found in 18 males. Total haplotype diversity was 0.9885
±
0.0058 (Macedonians) and 0.9008
±
0.0242 (Macedonian Romani).
Eight Y chromosome short tandem repeat (STR) polymorphisms (DYS19, DYS385, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, and DYS393) were analyzed in the sample of 117 unrelated Albanian males living in ...Kosovo. A general STR allelic frequency pattern in the Albanian population from Kosovo corresponds to other European populations. Fourty six haplotypes were observed in single copy. The most frequent haplotypes were (DYS19-DYS385-DYS389I-DYS389II-DYS390-DYS391-DYS392-DYS393) 14-11/11-13-29-24-11-13-13 (10.26%), 14-14/17-12-28-24-10-11-12 (9.40%), 13-16/18-13-30-24-10-11-13 (9.40%), and 14-17/17-13-31-24-10-11-13 (9.40%).
The population structure of the northern Adriatic island of Krk, Croatia, was studied using PCR methodology and nonradioactive oligonucleotide hybridization for the analysis of HLA-DRB1, DRB3, DRB4, ...DRB5, DQA1, and DQB1 polymorphisms. Allele frequencies, genetic kinship (R), and genetic distances (E²) were computed, and correlations between distance (genetic, linguistic, geographic) and kinship (migration) matrices were examined. The results, reflecting past (micro-) evolutionary processes, indicate that ethnohistorical and sociocultural events rather than geographic distances are the primary determinants of today's population structure of the island.
Parameters of Malécot's isolation-by-distance model are estimated for biological (anthropometric head and body dimensions, morphometric dimensions of metacarpal bones, quantitative and qualitative ...dermatoglyphic traits, and physiological/cardiorespiratory/variables) and linguistic distances and migrational kinship on the island of Korcula and the Peljesac peninsula in Middle Dalmatia, Croatia, Yugoslavia. Resulting parameters and the fit of the model are compared, for both regions, as well as with results of similar analysis in other parts of the world. The fit of the model is highly significant for migrational kinship and linguistic distances and less so for biological traits. Differences between these two populations, which live under basically similar ecological conditions, are explained by variation in biological and sociocultural history.
Y-STR genetic diversity of Croatian (Bayash) Roma Pokupčić, Kristina; Cukrov, Slavena; Klarić, Irena Martinović ...
Forensic science international : genetics,
03/2008, Volume:
2, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Abstract Seventeen Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (STRs) (DYS19, DYS385, DYS389I, DYS398II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS635, GATA H4.1) were ...typed in DNA samples from 146 unrelated adult Romani Bayash men from eastern and northwestern Croatia. Analysed Croatian Bayash Romani population represents an example of genetically homogenous population characterised by low levels of haplotype diversity and unique haplotype ratio as well as sharing of the same most frequent (founding) haplotype and its close derivatives by more than one third of the analyzed men. Despite almost exclusive sharing of the same minimal haplotype and its closely related derivates on the background of the Indian Y SNP haplogroup H1, we observed considerable level of genetic differentiation of Romani populations across Europe that should not be neglected in forensic statistics.
The aim of this review is to summarize the existing data collected in high-resolution phylogenetic studies of mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome variation in mainland and insular Croatian ...populations. Mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms were explored in 721 individuals by sequencing mtDNA HVS-1 region and screening a selection of 24 restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), diagnostic for main Eurasian mtDNA haplogroups. Whereas Y chromosome variation was analyzed in 451 men by using 19 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)/indel and 8 short tandem repeat (STR) loci. The phylogeography of mtDNA and Y chromosome variants of Croatians can be adequately explained within typical European maternal and paternal genetic landscape, with the exception of mtDNA haplogroup F and Y-chromosomal haplogroup P* which indicate a connection to Asian populations. Similar to other European and Near Eastern populations, the most frequent mtDNA haplogroups in Croatians were H (41.1%), U5 (10.3%), and J (9.7%). The most frequent Y chromosomal haplogroups in Croatians, I-P37 (41.7%) and R1a-SRY1532 (25%), as well as the observed structuring of Y chromosomal variance reveal a clearly evident Slavic component in the paternal gene pool of contemporary Croatian men. Even though each population and groups of populations are well characterized by maternal and paternal haplogroup distribution, it is important to keep in mind that linking phylogeography of various haplogroups with known historic and prehistoric scenarios should be cautiously performed.
We have analyzed the extent of genetic variation at nine autosomal short tandem repeat loci (D3S1358, VWA, FGA, TH01, TPOX, CSF1PO, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820) among six populations from Croatia: five ...distributed in the islands of the eastern Adriatic coast and one from the mainland. The purpose is to investigate the usefulness of these loci in detecting regional genetic differentiation in the studied populations. Significant heterogeneity among the island and mainland populations is revealed in the distributions of alíele frequencies; however, the absolute magnitude of the coefficient of gene differentiation is small but significant. The summary measures of genetic variation, namely, heterozygosity, number of alíeles, and alíele size variance, do not indicate reduced genetic variation in the island populations compared to the mainland population. In contrast to the two measures of genetic variation, alíele size variance and within-locus heterozygosity, the imbalance index ( β) indicates evidence of recent expansion of population sizes in all islands and in the mainland. High mutation rates of the studied loci together with local drift effects are likely explanations for interisland genetic variation and the observed lack of reduced genetic diversity among the island populations.
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