Molecular Epidemiology and Evolution Research Programme

Project title:

STRUCTURE AND ORIGIN OF THE FINNO-UGRIC POPULATIONS AS REVEALED BY MOLECULAR GENETIC ANALYSES

Project summary:

Recently increasing interest has been focused on the "roots" of the Finns among specialists and laymen. Contradictory hypotheses of the origin of the Finns have been presented by authorities of different fields, e.g. archaeologists and linguists. During the last few years modern gene technology has provided geneticists with new tools to elucidate the history of different populations. As a consequence the significance of population genetic data is currently growing in multidisciplinary analyses of the prehistorical events of the Finns.

Based on the studies on polymorphic protein and blood group markers the Finnish population was characterized by homogeneity. However, epidemiological studies have shown significant regional differences in the incidence of several multifactorial diseases, e.g. cardiovascular diseases and stroke. While decline of the incidence of both conditions is evident during ten-year follow-up time probably due to the changes in the risk factor levels, the regional differences are still significant. This may indicate differences in the distribution of genetic factors in the eastern and western parts of Finland.

The questions that will be explored in our study are as follows:

  1. The age and effective population size of the founder population of Finland,
  2. Possible regional differences in the genetic structure of the Finns,
  3. The genetic relationship of the Finns to the populations living currently in the close geographical vicinity but do not speak Uralic languages,
  4. The genetic relationship of the Finns to the populations speaking related (Uralic) languages but do not live in the close geographical vicinity.
Both classical marker, mtDNA and Y chromosomal polymorphisms are used in the molecular genetic analyses.

Coordinator:

Marja-Liisa Savontaus, Associate Professor
Department of Genetics, University of Turku
E-mail: malisa@utu.fi

Research group:

Antti Sajantila, MD, University of Helsinki
Pertti Sistonen, PhD, Finnish Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, Helsinki

Collaboration:

Antonio Torroni, Associate Professor, University "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy
Lars Beckmann, Professor, University of Umeå, Sweden
Vaidutis Kucinskas, Professor, Human Genetic Center, Vilnius, Lithuania

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