Drawing the history of the Hutterite population on a genetic landscape: inference from Y-chromosome and mtDNA genotypes

Abstract

Although the North American Hutterites trace their origins to South Tyrol, no attempts have been made to examine the genetic migration history of the Hutterites before emigrating to the United States in the 1870s. To investigate this, we studied 9 microsatellite loci and 11 unique event polymorphism (UEP) markers on the Y-chromosome, the hypervariable region I (HVRI) of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), as well as the complete mtDNA genome of Hutterite and South Tyrolean samples. Only 6 out of 14 Y-chromosome UEP+microsatellite haplotypes and 3 out of 11 mitochondrial haplotypes that were present in the Hutterites were also present in the South Tyrolean population. The phylogenetic relationships inferred from Y-chromosome and mtDNA databases show that the Hutterites have a unique genetic background related to a similar extent to central and eastern European populations. An admixture analysis indicates, however, a relatively high genetic contribution of central European populations to the Hutterite gene pool. These results are consistent with historical records on Hutterite migrations and demographic history. In addition, our data reveal similar numbers of Y and mitochondrial haplotypes in Hutterite male and female founders, respectively. The Hutterite male and female gene pools are similar with respect to genetic diversity and genetic distance measures and comparable with respect to their origins, suggesting a similar evolutionary history.

Figure 1

Male lineages 6 and 11. Filled symbols show males who were genotyped. Arrows indicate males who were included in the original sample (Table 1) and asterisks indicate sons of fathers in whom mutations arose at DYS388 (lineage 6, individual VII.4), DYS389II (lineage 11, individual X.5), and DYS390 (lineage 11, individual X.7). Haplotype 6 (29 repeats at DYS398II and 22 repeats at DYS390) is likely the ancestral haplotype in lineage 11 and haplotypes 11 (13 repeats at DYS393 and at DYS388) or 12 (14 repeats at DYS393 and 12 repeats at DYS388) are the likely haplotypes in lineage 6. The allelic composition of each haplotype is shown in Table 3.

Figure 2

Multidimensional scaling plot, based on linearized R_ST distances among the Hutterites and a pan-European reference dataset composed of 6154 individuals (Roewer et al, 2005), calculated from microsatellite data. The stress value is 0.16. Mos, Moskow; Kie, Kiev; Pol, Poland; Slo, Slovenia; Cro, Croatia; Rom, Romania; GeN, Northern Germany; Sge, Southern Germany; Vie, Vienna; Tra, Transylvania; Bul, Bulgaria; Bud, Budapest; Sty, Styria; Gre, Greek; Tur, Turkey; Alb, Albania; ItS, Southern Italy; ItW, Western Italy; Fra, France; Est, Estonia; Nor, Norway; NoN, Northern Norway; ItN, Northern Italy; ItE, Eastern Italy; ItC, Central Italy; Spa, Spain; Por, Portugal; PoN, Northern Portugal; Bel, Belgium; Swe, Sweden; UK, United Kingdom; Tyr, Tyrol; ST, South Tyrol; Swi, Switzerland; Net, Netherlands; NeN, Northern Netherlands; NeS, Southern Netherlands; Den, Denmark; Fin, Finland; Ire; Ireland; Hut, Hutterites.

Figure 3

Network analysis of mitochondrial HVRI haplotypes. The size of the circles indicates the number of individuals for a specific haplotype.