Testing Central and Inner Asian admixture among contemporary Hungarians

Area of Science:

• Population Genetics
• Human Migration Studies
• Ancient DNA Analysis

Background:

• The Carpathian Basin historically attracted nomadic peoples migrating from Central and Inner Asia.
• Proto-Hungarians, or Steppe Magyars, originated from the Eurasian Steppe during the early Middle Ages.
• Understanding paternal genetic lineage is crucial for tracing historical migrations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To detect and quantify the paternal genetic contribution from nomadic Steppe tribes to Hungarian-speaking populations.
• To compare genetic admixture levels among different Hungarian-speaking groups and Central/Inner Asian populations.
• To identify specific Y-chromosome haplogroups associated with this admixture.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 966 Y-chromosome samples from Central Asian, Inner Asian, and Hungarian-speaking European populations.
• Construction of median-joining networks for specific haplogroups.
• Estimation of paternal genetic contribution percentages.

Main Results:

• A paternal genetic contribution from Central/Inner Asian populations to Hungarian speakers was estimated between 5% and 7.4%.
• This contribution was lowest in Hungarians from Hungary (5.1%) and higher in Sekler (7.4%) and Csango (6.3%) populations in Romania.
• Key haplogroups identified include J2*-M172, J2-L24, R1a-Z93, Q-M242, and E-M78.

Conclusions:

• Present-day Hungarian speakers are genetically similar to neighboring European populations.
• Isolated Hungarian-speaking groups exhibit a relatively higher presence of Central and Inner Asian genetic elements.
• While Altaic/Turkic genetic contribution is not significant, it is higher than Uralic influence; further research with larger datasets and ancient DNA is recommended.