Genetic variability of Roma population was shaped by the strong influence of genetic drift and gene flow during the migrations from their ancestral homeland in Indian subcontinent towards Europe. In addition, social stigmatization in many European countries, as a consequence of different cultural heritage and social practices, induced further genetic differentiation and sub structuring within the population. Although many populations genetic studies on European Roma were carried out, the genetic structure of the Serbian Roma has not been described yet, since only the modest number of individuals from this territory was analyzed. The main aim of this study was the characterization of genetic variability of the Roma and the assessment of intrapopulation genetic differentiation based on the analysis of 21 autosomal STR loci of 259 self-identified unrelated individuals from Serbia. Intrapopulation analysis revealed divergence of Roma groups illustrating the effect of the historical events after their arrival on Balkan Peninsula and emphasizing significance of the religious affiliation on admixture with autochthonous population. Genetic distance analysis showed the greatest similarity of the studied population with the Middle Eastern populations, while South Asian and European population were more distant. Our results demonstrate that Roma groups in this region of Balkan Peninsula do not represent completely isolated, but rather admixed populations with different proportion of gene flow with other Roma and non-Roma groups.

中文翻译：

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塞尔维亚罗姆人群体的遗传变异：常染色体 STR 标记的视角。


罗姆人人口的遗传变异受到从印度次大陆祖先故乡向欧洲迁徙过程中遗传漂变和基因流的强烈影响。此外，由于不同的文化遗产和社会习俗，许多欧洲国家的社会污名化导致了人口内部进一步的遗传分化和亚结构。尽管对欧洲罗姆人进行了许多群体的遗传研究，但塞尔维亚罗姆人的遗传结构尚未得到描述，因为只分析了来自该地区的少量个体。本研究的主要目的是基于对来自塞尔维亚的 259 名自我鉴定的无关个体的 21 个常染色体 STR 基因座的分析，描述罗姆人的遗传变异性并评估群体内遗传分化。人口内分析揭示了罗姆人群体的分歧，说明了他们到达巴尔干半岛后历史事件的影响，并强调了宗教信仰对与本土人口混合的重要性。遗传距离分析显示，研究人群与中东人群的相似性最大，而南亚和欧洲人群的相似性则更为遥远。我们的研究结果表明，巴尔干半岛这一地区的罗姆人群体并不代表完全孤立的群体，而是与其他罗姆人和非罗姆人群体的基因流比例不同的混合群体。