Article in Nature Communications Journal
The Nature Communications journal (IF =12,353, Q1) published the article by Professor Balanovska E.V., head of the FSBI RCMG Human Population Genetics Laboratory, and Professor RAS Balanovsky O.P., Doctor of Biological Science, Chief researcher:
«Ancient human genome-wide data from a 3000-year interval in the Caucasus corresponds with eco-geographic regions»
Wang CC, Reinhold S, Kalmykov A, Wissgott A, Brandt G, Jeong C, Cheronet O, Ferry M, Harney E, Keating D, Mallick S, Rohland N, Stewardson K, Kantorovich AR, Maslov VE, Petrenko VG, Erlikh VR, Atabiev BC, Magomedov RG, Kohl PL, Alt KW, Pichler SL, Gerling C, Meller H, Vardanyan B, Yeganyan L, Rezepkin AD, Mariaschk D, Berezina N, Gresky J, Fuchs K, Knipper C, Schiffels S, Balanovska E, Balanovsky O, Mathieson I, Higham T, Berezin YB, Buzhilova A, Trifonov V, Pinhasi R, Belinskij AB, Reich D, Hansen S, Krause J, Haak W.
A study of 45 ancient genomes of the North Caucasus, covering a period from 6.5 to 3.5 thousand years ago, clarified the history of the population of this region. We discovered that there was a genetic barrier between the population of the Caucasus and the steppes adjacent to it in the Eneolithic and the Bronze Age. The North Caucasus population groups were genetically close to the southern populations (Anatolia and Iran), which indicates the migration of population groups through the Greater Caucasus Mountains. Representatives of the Yamnaya and other pastoralist cultures of the steppes demonstrated family relations not previously described with Anatolian and Iranian farmers. As for the Maykop steppe culture, genetic carriers are found to have relationships with the Upper Paleolithic populations of Siberia and the Amerindians. Numerous genetic links suggest that the Caucasus was not only (or not so much) a barrier, but a bridge connecting population groups from the north and the south and facilitating cultural exchange.
Nature Communication. 2019. Feb 4;10(1):590. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-08220-8