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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Genet.
Sec. Evolutionary and Population Genetics
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1462736

Genetic evidence points to distinct paternal settlers of the Faroe Islands and Iceland

Provisionally accepted
Allison E. Mann Allison E. Mann 1Eyðfinn Magnussen Eyðfinn Magnussen 2Christopher R. Tillquist Christopher R. Tillquist 3*
  • 1 University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States
  • 2 University of the Faroe Islands, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands
  • 3 University of Louisville, Louisville, Colorado, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Faroe Islands are a small archipelago located in the North Atlantic likely colonized by a small group of founders sometime between 50 and 300 CE. Post colonization, the Faroese people have been largely isolated from admixture with mainland and other island populations in the region. As such, the initial founder effect and subsequent genetic drift are likely major contributors to the modern genetic diversity found among the Faroese. In this study, we assess the utility of Y-chromosomal microsatellites to detect founder effect in the Faroe Islands through the construction of haplotype networks and a novel empirical method, mutational distance from modal haplotype histograms (MDM), for the visualization and evaluation of population bottlenecks. We compared samples from the Faroe Islands and Iceland to possible regional source populations and documented a loss of diversity associated with founder events. Additionally, within-haplogroup diversity statistics reveals lower haplotype diversity and richness within both the Faroe Islands and Iceland, consistent with a small founder population colonizing both regions. However, in the within-haplogroup networks, the Faroe Islands are found within the larger set of potential source populations while Iceland is consistently found on isolated branches. Moreover, comparisons of within-haplogroup MDM histograms document a clear founder signal in the Faroes and Iceland, but the strength of this signal is haplogroup-dependent which may be indicative of more recent admixture or other demographic processes. The results of the current study and lack of conformity between Icelandic and Faroese haplotypes implies that the two populations were founded by different paternal gene pools and there is no detectable post-founder admixture between the two groups.

    Keywords: Faroe Islands, Microsatellies, Y chromosome analysis, Founder effect, North Atlantic

    Received: 10 Jul 2024; Accepted: 02 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mann, Magnussen and Tillquist. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Christopher R. Tillquist, University of Louisville, Louisville, 40292, Colorado, United States

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