Sicily through GedMatch Harappa World

[LeBrok]

Recently I got a lot of kit numbers for Sicily, and having a bit of time on my hands today I compiled this table.

Europeans	# of samples	S-Indian	Baloch	Caucasian	NE-Euro	SE-Asian	Siberian	NE-Asian	Papuan	American	Beringian	Mediterranean	SW-Asian	San	E-African	Pygmy	W-African
Sardinia	2	0	0	23	17	0	0	0	0	0	0	48	11	0	0	0	0
Italy, NE	7	0	7	20	34	0	0	0	0	0	0	31	6	0	0	0	0
Italy, NW	5	0	6	20	33	0	0	0	0	0	0	34	6	0	0	0	0
Italy, Tuscany	4	0	7	25	28	0	0	0	0	0	0	32	8	0	0	0	0
Italy, South	5	0	8	32	17	0	0	0	0	0	0	27	13	0	1	0	0
Sicily	44	0	8	33	16	0	0	0	0	0	0	26	14	0	1	0	1
Sicily, Messina	5	0	7	36	14	0	0	0	0	0	0	26	15	0	1	0	1
Sicily, Catania	8	0	8	34	15	0	0	0	0	0	0	26	14	0	1	0	1
Sicily, Siracuse	3	0	9	32	18	0	0	0	0	0	0	27	12	0	1	0	1
Sicily, Ragusa	3	0	7	31	18	0	1	0	0	0	0	26	13	0	1	0	2
Sicily, Caltanissetta	5	1	8	34	15	0	0	0	0	0	0	26	15	0	1	0	0
Sicily, Agrigento	6	0	8	33	16	0	0	0	0	0	0	26	14	0	1	0	1
Sicily, Palermo	9	0	8	32	17	0	0	0	0	0	0	26	14	0	1	0	1
Sicily, Trapani	5	0	7	30	19	0	0	0	0	0	0	29	13	0	1	0	0
Greece, mainland	15	0	8	31	25	0	0	0	0	0	0	26	9	0	0	0	0
Greece, Macedonia	5	0	8	31	25	0	0	0	0	0	0	25	9	0	0	0	0
Greece, Peloponnese	5	0	9	31	24	0	0	0	0	0	0	26	9	0	0	0	0
Other mainland	5	0	7	30	26	0	0	0	0	0	0	26	9	0	0	0	0
Greek, Islands, East	5	0	9	38	14	0	0	1	0	0	0	23	14	0	0	0	0
Greek, island and mainland average		0	9	34	19	0	0	0	0	0	0	24	12	0	0	0	0
Cyprus	4	1	10	44	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	20	17	0	0	0	0

Quick observations.
- Sicily is fairly uniform genetically, except Trapani and Ragusa which shows more Steppe (?), with less caucasian and more NE Euro. There might be a bias with small sample numbers though.
- Places like Messina resembles Greek Islanders a lot.
- I'm surprised that Greek Macedonia and Peloponnese look exactly the same. Does PCA or other statistics confirm this?
- Can we get kit numbers for Epirus, West Islands and Crete?

[LeBrok]

I got more samples from Sicily so the table got updated. With more samples Palermo shifted toward BA Steppe, joining Trapani's trend.

[LeBrok]

Possible bias with "my sources" of Palermo kit numbers selection.

Sicily, Palermo	Population	S-Indian	Baloch	Caucasian	NE-Euro	SE-Asian	Siberian	NE-Asian	Papuan	American	Beringian	Mediterranean	SW-Asian	San	E-African	Pygmy	W-African
Source 1	5	0	8	35	14	0	0	-	0	0	0	26	15	0	1	0	1
Source 2	4	0	8	29	19	0	1	0	0	0	0	27	12	0	1	0	0

Samples from "Source 1" are shifted towards Greek Islanders (BA Anatolia), Source 2 samples skewed towards Central Italy. I'm not sure what to think about this. Could be coincidental due to small sample size?

[Angela]

I would hesitate to make any predictions about the population genetics of Sicily using samples from Palermo. As the capital, it has absorbed people from all over the island, the mainland, and even abroad.

Messina is even worse. It was hit by three massive earthquakes from the late 19th to early 20th century. The last one so devastated the town itself and killed so many people that the town had to be rebuilt from scratch and was repopulated with people from other parts of Sicily and the mainland. I don't know what we could tell from those results.

Also, unlike areas in the north where there was for centuries a patchwork of states, some ruled by foreign countries, and so it was difficult to move to other "jurisdictions", helping to maintain even sub-regional genetic structures, Sicily has always been one unit. People have been moving around for thousands of years. Even if you can find older people who have all four grandparents from one town, that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of movement in the past. It's not like testing one mountain valley, as was the case with the Calabrian Greek speakers, who are a very drifted population where everyone is basically everyone else's cousin, and probably a certain admixture signature would be common to all of them.

Anyway, the academic papers so far haven't found a lot of sub-structure in Sicily, although if testing ever becomes popular or the academics have the interest in collecting lots of samples from different regions, some might show up.