Revisiting Kurdish autosomal DNA (Eurogenes version)

Updated: 30.12.2015

Today,  I want to present Kurdish results using Eurogenes K13, presented on GEDmatch.com. Thanks to all the contributors of this post. This is an update of the previous experiment with using a different calculator and more individuals included. The calculator is supposed to be without calculator effect, thus it should present more clear results.

Kurdish sub-groups

Êzidî: 1

Feyli: 4

Kurmanji: 22

Sorani: 11

Zazaki: 18

Neighbouring peoples

Armenian: 20

Assyrian: 11

samples

ADMIXTURE results using Eurogenes K13. (Population Averages)

There is not much difference between sub-groups other than expected gradual variation by the geography. Overall they're pretty close. Feylis score the highest West+South Asian additionally the lowest West Med+North Atlantic. As shown at previous experiments, It is really hard to distinguish between Kurmanjis and Zazakis from overall admixture makeup so I'll take them as one. While Zazakis are just a hair lower, Kurmanjis score the highest North Atlantic+West Med and the lowest Red Sea, while Zazakis score the lowest South Asian, again Kurmanjis follow Zazakis just a hair behind. Kurmanjis, Soranis, Zazakis score similar level of Baltic admixture.

Feylis= Southern
Sorani = Central, Eastern, Southern
Kurmanji = Northern, North-eastern, North-western, Western, Far-western, additionally Central Anatolia and Xorasan exclaves
Zazaki = Far-Western, North-western, North-eastern, Western


Distances between Kurdish groups and their neighbours:

	Kurds_F	Kurds_S	Kurds_E	Kurds_K	Kurds_Z	Iranians	Armenians	Assyrians	Turkish
Kurds_F	0	3.9	4.1	4.6	4.5	3.1	13.3	13.6	14.9
Kurds_S	3.7	0	3.3	2.4	2.4	4.0	11.2	12.0	11.6
Kurds_E	4.1	3.3	0	3.5	2.9	5.6	9.9	10.9	12.7
Kurds_K	4.9	2.4	3.5	0	1.3	5.8	10.7	12.2	10.8
Kurds_Z	4.4	2.4	2.9	1.3	0	5.6	10.2	11.4	11.3
Iranians	3.1	4.0	5.6	5.8	5.6	0	13.9	13.8	14.2
Armenians	13.4	11.2	9.9	10.7	10.2	13.9	0	4.2	11.4
Assyrians	13.8	12.0	10.9	12.2	11.4	13.8	4.2	0	13.2
Turkish	14.9	11.6	12.7	10.8	11.3	14.2	11.4	13.2	0

Overall the closest people to Kurdish groups are their linguistic cousins, Iranians. Then Armenians, Assyrians, Turks. Syrians, Iraqis, Georgians are quite distant from Kurds hence excluded.

Despite having different religious beliefs and divided by international borders, Kurds are genetically quite homogeneous. When comparing Kurdish groups with their neighbours, there is no any sub clusters appear because of aforementioned reason. They all fall in the same cluster except a few admixed individuals. Therefore, We need to exclude neighbours to get finer details.

There are only 3 sub-clusters when all samples are considered(n=56). #2 seems like individuals with recent Armenian/-like ancestry. Thanks to more samples, this time division between  clusters is finer and there is no clear cut borders like previous experiment. We can say first group is merely Northern or second group is merely Southern. Because both clusters have all Kurdish groups:

#1 Northern/Western
#2 Individuals with recent foreign admixture
#3 Southern/Eastern
(see Results by class: )

Distances between the class centroids:

	1	2	3
1	0	7.1	4.4
2	7.1	0	7.0
3	4.4	7.0	0

Class centroids:	Class	1	2	3
	North Atlantic	3.9	3.7	2.5
	Baltic	3.9	2.0	5.7
	West Med	7.4	9.2	7.0
	West Asian	40.4	38.1	37.5
	East Med	29.1	34.8	30.4
	Red Sea	5.1	4.3	6.1
	South Asian	7.4	5.7	8.2
	East Asian	0.4	0.3	0.3
	Siberian	1.0	0.5	0.9
	Amerindian	0.7	0.6	0.6
	Oceanian	0.2	0.2	0.2
	Northeast African	0.4	0	0.3
	Sub Saharan	0.1	0.6	0.3

Results by class:
Class	1	2	3
	KRD000K	KRD002K	KRD003K
	KRD005K	KRD012Z	KRD006K
	KRD007K		KRD019K
	KRD038K		KRD033K
	KRD044K		KRD051K
	KRD063K		KRD060K
	KRD091K		KRD093K
	KRD100K		KRD098K
	KRD158K		KRD116K
	KRD184K		KRD166K
	KRD045E		KRD185K
	KRD008Z		KRD001Z
	KRD058Z		KRD004Z
	KRD059Z		KRD039Z
	KRD064Z		KRD048Z
	KRD070Z		KRD077Z
	KRD072Z		KRD078Z
	KRD076Z		KRD086Z
	KRD101Z		KRD029S
	KRD102Z		KRD032S
	KRD104Z		KRD047S
	KRD030S		KRD061S
	KRD031S		KRD089S
	KRD138S		KRD092S
	KRD192S		KRD148S
	KRD036F		KRD034F
	Kurds_E		KRD035F
	Kurds_K		KRD090F
	Kurds_Z		Kurds_F
			Kurds_S

Same dendrogram instead of ID codes, member's locations

Click image to expand

Partly admixed individuals:

Euclidean distance:

	KRD002K	KRD012Z	ARM13	ARM19	ASY08
ARM	6,2	6,0	4,9	6,8	5,1
ASY	8,9	6,7	7,3	8,3	4,6
Kurds_F	10,0	8,2	10,8	9,2	9,7
Kurds_S	8,1	7,0	8,5	7,4	8,1
Kurds_E	6,3	4,9	7,7	6,8	7,1
Kurds_K	6.9	7,0	7,4	6,7	8,3
Kurds_Z	6,7	6,1	7.0	6,0	7,5

Participant Map: