Iran was the homeland of one of the most ancient civilizations and its geographic position at the crossroad of Middle East, central Asia and Europe allowed extensive contacts between people from these regions and Iranian populations. Iran also shows a high ethnic diversity, with many different populations speaking both Indo-European Iranian and Altaic Turkic languages. Interestingly, the two largest nomadic people of Iran, namely Bakhtiari and Qashqai, belong to these two different linguistic families, although they share a similar nomadic pastoral lifestyle in the Zagros mountains and neighbouring provinces. Their origins are still matter of debate, although it is accepted that Bakhtiari probably originated locally in Iran while Qashqai arrived from central Asia between the XI and XIII centuries.
Despite these features, evolutionary genetics studies about the Iranian populations are still scarce and very little information is available for Bakhtiari and Qashqai. Our research project wants to investigate their genetic history and their relations with other Iranian and non-Iranian people, in order to understand their origin and, more generally, the population history of Iran and Eurasia. To this aim, we plan to sample 200 individuals belonging to these two ethnic groups (100 Bahktiari and 100 Qashqai) and to analyse them by analysis the Y-chromosome DNA testing. The data will be used to reconstruct their ancestral components and will be compared with available relevant data from the literature from Asia, Africa and Europe. Our genetic results will be then used to paint a comprehensive picture of the role of the Iranian populations in the peopling of Eurasia and northern Africa, trying to reconstruct the movements and interactions between ancient people from these regions.
The inclusion of middle eastern individuals in the genomic projects is still scarce and, usually, the nomadic populations are not included. However, the Middle East has a long history of conquest, migrations, and contacts among populations, so the analysis of the genetic variability of the middle eastern people can be highly informative about the human genetic variation. In this context, it is worth noting that the nomadic populations usually represent an interesting case-study because of their lifestyle. Many nomadic populations tend to preserve their culture and traditions reducing admixture with neighbouring people. This makes them genetically differentiated by other people in the same regions, possibly leading to the identification of genetic contributions that are absent or uncommon elsewhere, thus shading new light on the genetic history of the populations under study.
For these reasons, here we propose to focus on the genome-wide variations of two nomadic Iranian populations, with a quite different history. The Bakthiari speak an Indo-European Iranian dialect and their origins go back in time, probably in the same Iranian regions where they still live. Differently, the Qashqai are the descendant of Turkish people arrived in Iran between the XI and XII centuries from the central Asian Steppe.
With this approach, we aim to investigate the population history of these two ethnic groups and of Iran in general, comparing them with available Iranian genomes from the literature. We will then use the results to paint a comprehensive picture of the role of the Iranian populations in the peopling of Eurasia and northern Africa, trying to identify the genetic traces left by ancient contacts between populations and to reconstruct their movements and interactions.