Fst test is a special case

 The genetic history of Finns is surprisingly poorly known. Words are used in a general sense and generalizing. It has become a habit to enhance one's own knowledge with expert vocabulary in different contexts without real context. For example, the genetic disease inheritance of Finns is used to describe the homogeneity of Finns and the old bottleneck of the Finnish population. However, this inheritance is regional, peripheral, and not even old. Regional genetic drifts are generalized to cover the homogeneity of the entire population. This is not the case, but different regions of Finland have also their own admixture, a very young Sámi mixture in the north, Swedish mixture in the west and south. Older admixtures include the Iron Age Estonian and Sami admixture of the entire population and the even older Germanic admixture.

Incorrect assumptions lead to incorrect conclusions and results. The fst results of the Estonian study, link, are right, yet could be more informative. It comes out by dividing the Finnish samples into decile groups based distances to the Estonian data. There are 10 samples in each decile and the result reflects the diversity of Finns in fst tests. The final result depends on the testing method, for example admixture tests would give a different result, but the error sources should be taken into account according to the method. I also tested with the same deciles against the British, although the decile division made on the basis of Estonian data does not give a correct picture of the Britts in relation to the Finns. 

Due to the nature of the fst test, the result based on the entire population does not give sensible fst distances of the Finns. In principle, we can take any set of samples and assume the meaning we want, but it would be better to analyze first, because every method tends to have own pitfalls.

The material has been downloaded from the 1000 genomes Project and Reichlab's Human Origin data.

Making sense of the I1-CTS2208 clade

 

The I1-CTS2208 clade is mostly a Scandinavian I1 clan and can be assumed to have originated in southern Sweden (?). Its root to the present is 2900-3900 years old (source Yfull, formed 3900 ybp, TMRCA 2900 ybp). From Sweden, it expanded its territory radially to nearby areas. It has been particularly successful in Finland, where its share of the male population is around 30%.

The test material was downloaded from Familytreedna's I1 project and all samples cover 67 str markers.  Due to the significant Finnish emigration to nearby areas, I removed from the material all samples of the Finnish clan found in Sweden, Norway and Russia (in Russia, most of these are ancestors from Karelia, which was handed over to Russia in the war). In practice, all of these Finnish samples represent a young migration movement, and most of them can easily find a Finnish root in the Finnish church records. In addition, I removed similarities that indicate close kinship from the large Finnish material.

The results clearly show an old overlap in the Finnish and Swedish samples, with the Swedish samples placed at the root in time (Yfull).  It would be interesting to look at the TMRCA of those overlapping samples.   The timings of the I1 tree can be examined in YFull. It should be noted that the neighbor diagram does not represent the age structure, but the distance of the samples and the tree structure arise from the genetic distances of the sample set, regardless of TMRCA's between samples or sample groups. In contrast to similar posts I did earlier, where the results were based on TMRCA data, now the results are based on str data.  Germany, Ireland, Poland and Denmark consist of one sample  each.

Men's testosterone levels declining

 The number of ancient genome samples from the vicinity of Finland has grown commendably in recent years. In my last writings, I have dealt with the genetic history of Finland's neighboring regions. For Finland, the situation is difficult; our acidic soil destroys the material effectively, and material over 1000 years old can only be found in exceptional cases, when the burial site is located in a place more favorable to the environment. According to rumors, some samples older than this would have been successfully sequenced, e.g. From southwestern Finland and northern Ostrobothnia. However, I cannot confirm this. While waiting for the publication of new Finnish ancient genetic studies, I try to keep my blog active with other considerations.

According to statistics, testosterone levels in men have decreased by 15% in the last 20 years. If it is tue, I think this is alarming. Undoubtedly, this could have adverse effects for the human species. Simultaneously with the decrease in testosterone level, sperm production in men has also decreased. An obvious connection, but what do the researchers say? Three reasons have been proposed for the phenomenon: - environmental toxins, plant protection agents and microplastics - unhealthy food that lacks many important trace elements, such as zinc and magnesium - feminization of society. Feminization would affect the way of life practiced by men and decrease the amount of testosterone level through lack of physical exercise and mental change, or in the longer term through pairing. It would be interesting to know if the decrease in testosterone is reflected in our genes. Are we poisoned by environmental chemistry and our food, or is the change also reflected in our inheritance? How should this decrease in testosterone be treated? Does it have negative or even positive effects on the future of our life? Environmental toxins are without a doubt something to be avoided, but it is difficult for an individual to avoid their intake. In the case of unhealthy food, the responsibility lies more with the individual himself, but the influence of society is also big. The feminization of society (which you can either recognize or not) would be seen, for example, in the changed upbringing of children, or its effects would be seen with a delay through mate selection in posterity. As living conditions improve and security increases, women might give priority to less masculine men. The change that took place through this would be visible in the inheritance of offspring, and it may be possible to ascertain it through research. All in all, the decline in men's testosterone is related to complex phenomena and finding out the reasons would be a challenging task, but it would be good to find out why and the effects https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKIM169763/

Estonian study from 2020 deepens the Estonian genetic geography

 The Estonian study Vasili Pankratov et al.  (link) shows the genetic structure of Estonians and the relationship of each province to the geographical environment. The research does not really bring anything new, but it does confirm a lot of what is already known with the help of extensive genetic material. In sum, the population of the northern parts of Estonia is more mixed than the south and wider in diversity (shares smaller IBD episodes) and has a wider population base (Ne reading). All of a sudden, this destroys the notion of Estonians' heterogeneous Balticness and leaves the Finnish and Russian demographic influence in Estonia still open.  

Comments

- figure 1 (b) describes the relationship of other populations with Estonians more than the relationship of Estonians with other populations, especially for the reason that no reference groups have been presented for Northern Russians.

- finestructure is not capable of historical context and easily gives misleading results about the origin of populations. Waiting for an analysis capable of historical context...

New study drills down to the Scandinavian prehistory

 A new study -> link sheds light on the development of Scandinavian settlement from the late Neolithic period to modern times. The research aims to evaluate the genomic results partly also from the perspectives of linguistics and archaeology. The research is so extensive that getting familiar with it takes a lot of time, so I won't even try to draw conclusions here. A few points already at this point. The term East Scandinavian created in the study mainly means the area of Sweden. Its counterweight is southern Scandinavia, mainly meaning the Danish region. The mixing of these areas into modern Scandinavians took place 3000-4000 years ago in southern Scandinavia. On the basis of this, it must be assumed that the migration took place from north to south, which was also brought up in -> the previous study dealing with the issue. From the point of view of linguistics, the interesting question of where the Scandinavian and Germanic language group was born still remains open, even though the issue is sidestepped cross-disciplinaryly by means of genetics. No more than Eastern Sweden and the Western Baltic can be reached in this study, and no evidence is presented. From the point of view of Finland, two samples from Ostrobothnia are interestingly found in the new material, which at a quick look look more like Finns, in contrast to previous Sami and Scandinavian type samples from the same area. In itself, the fact that all these genotypes can be found in the same area in Ostrobothnia is not surprising, because the area was the starting point of the eastern trade route of the Scandinavians before it moved to the Gulf of Finland and the Daugava river.

Razib Khan's special interest in Finnish culture/ancestry

 Razib Khan is a Pakistani-American genetist being active in population genetics and has a long work history in creating tools for consumer business in that area.  I have followed his online writings and impact in creating software tools for companies selling genetic ancestry analyses.  All the time he has had a special interest in Finnish culture and  genetic history.  It has been pleasure to read his wonderful visions about us and see the progress in his comprehension.  Read and enjoy  about his latest writings.

https://www.razibkhan.com/p/finnish-brains-baiting-and-bottlenecks

https://www.razibkhan.com/p/weirdness-as-a-national-pastime

https://www.razibkhan.com/p/go-west-young-siberian

https://www.razibkhan.com/p/from-deepest-siberia-to-europes-edge

https://www.razibkhan.com/p/frontier-finns-cabins-rakes-and-indians

Razib Khans blog:  https://www.gnxp.com/

Nothing new in Sweden since the Bronze Age?

 Thanks to Danish researchers for releasing Scandinavian Bronze Age samples, available at ENA. I downloaded bam files of those Scandinavian Bronze Age I1 men mentioned in my previous post, processed them and ran a PCA plot, including present-day Europeans.  Here is a screenshot of the study preprint picture of corresponding samples:

The plot (below) shows evidently that all those I1 samples locate in the same position with present-day Swedes, excluding Swedish individuals showing Finnish influence. The similarity with Swedes after 3000-4000 years actually a bit surprises me.  Deeper eigenvectors show a bit more western tendency, though. Pity I have no modern Danish samples to compare with them.  Finnish I1 samples don't differ in any aspect from the modern Finnish population, which is an expected result and shows identical impact of long-term local influence as it has been the case also in Sweden, see the preprint picture where the BA I1 sample group diverges from the ancient Central European sample group.