Genetic Variations In Modern Day Hungarians

The ancient Hungarians, also known as Magyars, most likely originated from the Ural region (modern day Central Russia) and migrated across the steppe, into Europe. The Hungarians tribal alliance conquered the Carpathian Basin about late 8th and early 9th Century AD and mingled with the indigenous communities.

The Hungarians linguistically belong to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic family. An interesting marker called the Tat C allele is distributed in all the Finno-Ugric language speaking populations, save for the Hungarians. This has raised the question and has led to the belief that ancient Hungarians invaded the region bearing Siberian lineage which later disappeared.

The two modern Hungarian-speaking populations share similar components described for other Europeans, except the haplogroup P*(M173) presence in Szekler (Hungarian speaking population from Transylvania) samples that may reflect a connection with Central Asia, and also the high frequency of haplogroup J in both Szeklers population and Hungarians who are closely related genetically, and similar to Central Europe populations and the Balkans.

Y-Chromosome Variation in Szekler and Modern Hungarians Population
The Y-haplogroups observed in these two ethnic groups are directly relative to those found among many populations of Europe.

Haplogroup R1a1 (M17)

The most frequent Y-DNA clade in the modern Hungarian population (about 30%), encompasses a Y-chromosomal gene pool of 18.6% in the Szeklers. The age of this haplogroup has been propionate as 15 000 years ago. This haplogroup is frequent in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Northwest India.

This haplogroup’s current distribution shows an increasing west-east frequency.
The R1a1 (M17) frequency in Hungarians and Szeklers is comparable to the same in their neighbors (e.g. Czechs and Slovaks, mainland Bosnians, Croatians, Serbians, and Romanians) and other Uralic-speaking populations (e.g. Komis, Estonian, and Mordvin). This indicates the expansion of this haplogroup to have occurred at least in three major episodes of gene flow;

Early post-LGM (Late Glacial Migration) recolonization of Europe from the refuge area (present-day Ukraine) Migrations from the northern Pontic steppe between 3rd and 1st millennia BC and The historical Slavic migration of the 500 to 700 AD

Haplogroup R1b (M269)

In contrast to R1a1, this haplogroup highest frequency is found in Western Europe and decreases as you go in the east and southwards in Europe; it shows multiple peaks in West Europe and Asia Minor as well and reflects the re-population of Europe from the Iberia peninsula and Asia Minor during the Holocene and Late Upper Paleolithic periods.
Similar frequencies of R1b are also found in some Slavic populations (mainland Slovenians, Bulgarians, Croatians, and Poles) as with the Hungarians; and in some Uralic-speaking tribes (Mordvin, Komis, and Khanties). Moreover, in populations of Romania and Turkey.

Haplogroup P* (M173)

The presence of this central-Asian haplogroup in the Szeklers is unusual since it is almost non-existent in continental Europe and is presumed to reflect some Asian contribution.

Haplogroup I (M170)

The only Y haplogroup almost exclusively confined to the Europe. Its virtual absence elsewhere, suggests that the M170 defining mutation arose in Europe, before the LGM. It is proposed that the northern Balkans may have been LGM refugees and M170 reservoir. All its major subclades; I1a, I1b, and I1c all diverged from I* in the Mesolithic Period.
Haplogroup I was detected with almost equal frequency in the two ethnic modern populations of the Hungarians and the Szeklers.
Haplogroup I1b (P37) is the most frequent major haplogroup I clade in the Balkans region and Eastern Europe.

Haplogroup J

Considered to have originated from the Middle East. This haplogroup is unexpectedly common among the Hungarians (16%) and the Szeklers (21.6%). This Haplogroup has two main clades; J1 (M267) and J2 (M172). The J1-M267 lineage is most notably frequent in Szeklers population (10.3%) which is more than the other eastern and central European populations, while in the Hungarians, its frequency is unremarkable (3.0%).
Haplogroup J2 is more prevalent in Europe than the J1 clade. One of its subclades J2e1 (M102) is more frequent among the Szeklers (7.2%) than in the Hungarians (4.0%). The overall frequency in the two ethnic groups is in the same magnitude order in the Czechs and Slovaks, Bulgarians, Romanians, and Ukrainians.

Haplogroup E3b (M35)

Occurring at 10% frequency in Hungarians and 9.2% in Szeklers. The major Haplogroup E is mainly from the African continent, but its subclade E3b (M35) has been observed in Europe and is believed to have arrived probably during and after a Neolithic period. Both E3b (M35) and its subclade derivative (E3b1) have origins in eastern Africa. E3b lineage shows high frequency in southern and southeastern Europe and declines as you head towards Western, Central and Eastern Europe.

mtDNA variations of the Hungarians

The distribution frequency of the continental exclusive haplogroups indicates that 93.9% of Hungarian populations’ mtDNA were Caucasoid. Other variations include; 4.1% of unidentified origin, and very small percentage belonging to Asian populations from Budapest and Pal’oc. In relation to the European mtDNA lineages, Hungarian ethnic groups differ significantly from each other for the H lineage. In the Hungarians, this lineage is the most frequent, and is closely followed by the U lineage.

Haplogroups T, K, and V all occur at very low frequencies, while X and I are absent. Mt DNA Haplogroup J, considered a Neolithic arrival, has a frequency that is within the range of other European populations.

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Categories: E, I, J, P, R

Tags: Finno-Ugric, genealogy, genetic genealogy, genetics, Hungarian, Hungary, Magyars, Szekler, Uralic

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