Phylogenetic relationship analysis of Iranians and other world populations using allele frequencies at 12 polymorphic markers.

Abstract

The estimation of genetic distance between populations could improve our viewpoint about human migration and its genetic origin. In this study, we used allele frequency data of 12 polymorphic markers on 250 individuals (500 alleles) from the Iranian population to estimate genetic distance between the Iranians and other world populations. The phylogenetic trees for three different sets of allele frequency data were constructed. Our results revealed the genetic similarity between the Iranians and European populations. The lowest genetic distance was observed between the Iranians and some populations reside in Russia. Furthermore, the high genetic distance was observed between the Iranians and East Asian populations. The data suggested that the Iranians might have relatively close evolutionary history with Europeans, but historically independent from East Asian populations. The evaluation of genetic distance between Indians populations and Iranians was also performed. The Indian groups showed low genetic distance with others, but high genetic distance with the Iranians. This study could provide a new insight into the evolutionary history of the Iranian population.