Genetic Future: Genome-wide association studies taken to the next level
John Hawks: Disease, pathogens, and collectivism:
Would it be surprising that early agriculturalists living in emerging villages and cities might have been subject to pressures that enhanced collectivism? Such changes may have been facilitated by genetic changes, but would have also included cultural adaptations. Yet a correlation with pathogens would emerge as a side-effect of the history of agriculturalism, not as a direct cause.
Lega Nord: also known as "the xenophobic Northern League", in the BBC's totally objective reportage:
The party scored more than 8% in the national vote, almost twice what it garnered in the last elections. It is no longer seeking independence for the north, as it initially did, but it demands extensive autonomy.[North vs. South Italy]
Newsweek: On personal genetic testing: May We Scan Your Genome? Nothing new if you've been following the field.
3 comments:
The "ITN" sample in this chart includes Northern, Central and Southern Italians, and the clustering is based on 2,657 genome-wide SNPs:
http://i31.tinypic.com/9ghgtf.gif
"Trends in both the Italian and Spanish participants were also consistent with this north–south pattern: ten of 32 participants from northern Italy had greater than a 10% “northern” component compared with two of 28 from southern Italy"
(link)
This, even after migration from the south to the north in the past century and a half has likely muddied the picture. If anything, the genetic distinction between "true" N. and S. Italians is likely to be larger.
Key point however is that study, like every other study on Italy, shows differences between N. and S.
The notion that Northern Italians are somehow Northern or Central European is not supported by the data. They're Southern European like Southern Italians and Greeks.
"Italy (84 of 86 individuals)...had majority contributions from the 'southern' population group as defined by this population structure analysis."
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