Genetic Diversity in the German Population

Michael Krawczak, Christian‐Albrechts‐Universität, Kiel, Germany
Timothy T Lu, Christian‐Albrechts‐Universität, Kiel, Germany
Sascha Willuweit, Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany
Lutz Roewer, Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany

Published online: May 2008

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020801

Throughout most of recent human history, Germany has experienced major demographic transitions that are also reflected by its current population genetic structure. While the Y-chromosomal gene pool appears to be considerably stratified and the mitochondrial genome is highly homogeneous, variation on autosomes and on the X-chromosome both exhibit an intermediate level of heterogeneity between subpopulations.

Keywords: population structure; migration; genetic drift; haplogroup; neolithic diffusion

Figure 1. (a) Geographical origin and (b) multidimensional scaling analysis of the Y-STR haplotypes of 5993 German speaking males. Displayed are the first two dimensions, calculated from the pair-wise genetic distances between sampling sites as measured by ST. Sample locations are marked by dots (German), triangles (Austrian) and squares (Swiss), depending upon nationality. The underlying data were obtained from the Y Chromosome Haplotype Reference Database (www.yhrd.org). Multidimensional scaling analysis of ST values as obtained from ARLEQUIN (http://lgb.unige.ch/arlequin/) was carried out using the cmdscale routine of the R statistical programming platform.
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Human Evolution | Population Structure and Genetics
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Article Title: Genetic Diversity in the German Population
 
How to Cite close
Krawczak, Michael, Lu, Timothy T, Willuweit, Sascha, and Roewer, Lutz(May 2008) Genetic Diversity in the German Population. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020801]