Genetic continuity of Indo-Iranian speakers since the Iron Age in southern Central Asia

Since prehistoric times, southern Central Asia has been at the crossroads of the movement of people, culture, and goods. Today, the Central Asian populations are divided into two cultural and linguistic groups: the Indo-Iranian and the Turko-Mongolian groups. Previous genetic studies unveiled that migrations from East Asia contributed to the spread of Turko-Mongolian populations in Central Asia and the partial replacement of the Indo-Iranian populations. However, little is known about the origin of the latters. To shed light on this, we compare the genetic data on two current-day Indo-Iranian populations — Yaghnobis and Tajiks — with genome-wide data from published ancient individuals. The present Indo-Iranian populations from Central Asia display a strong genetic continuity with Iron Age samples from Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. We model Yaghnobis as a mixture of 93% Iron Age individual from Turkmenistan and 7% from Baikal. For the Tajiks, we observe a higher Baikal ancestry and an additional admixture event with a South Asian population. Our results, therefore, suggest that in addition to a complex history, Central Asia shows a remarkable genetic continuity since the Iron Age, with only limited gene flow.

A new species of Acanthodactylus Fitzinger, 1834 (Sauria: Lacertidae) from the Zagros Mountains, Iran

Acanthodactylus boskianus is a widespread species in Northern Africa and Western Asia. In this study, we used morphological and genetic approaches to study populations of A. boskianus from the Zagros Mountains in western Iran, the easternmost limit of the species’ distribution. Our morphological and genetic data indicate that populations of A. boskianus in Iran are distinct from other populations of A. boskianus. Therefore, we describe the Iranian populations as Acanthodactylus zagrosicus sp. nov. The new species is the third endemic species of Acanthodactylus in Iran and the ninth Acanthodactylus species distributed in Iran overall. According to our surveys, this species is distributed widely in the Zagros Mountains including Kermanshah, Lorestan, Ilam, and Khuzestan Provinces.

Molecular studies of Iranian populations support the morphology-based taxonomic separation of Medicago rigidula and M. rigiduloides

A comprehensive study was undertaken to understand the genetic status and help to clarify the division of Medicago rigidula (largely European) and Medicago rigiduloides (largely Asian). Genetic diversity parameters collectively suggested a low genetic diversity (avg. Ho, 0.073; He, 0.374) accompanied by high population differentiation (avg. F, 0.832; Gst, 0.362). Structure analysis divided 71 individuals (14 Iranian populations) into two highly distinct genetic groups (K=2) with significant genetic homogeneity. It also indicated the strong effect of the selfing mating-system as the main reason for the genetic diversity status and population structure. The population grouping was strongly confirmed by various clustering methods. Populations from north and northwestern Iran made up a distinctive genetic group corresponding to M. rigidula while the second group corresponding to M. rigiduloides harboured the western and two of the northwestern populations. The outcomes of this study provide the first reliable molecular evidence supporting the M. rigidula-M. rigiduloides separation previously suggested by morphology.

Phenotypic variation in Heremites vittatus (Olivier, 1804) (Sauria: Scincidae) from Iran and Turkey

According to a large morphological dataset of specimens from Turkey to Iran and based on several morphological analyses, the Iranian populations of the skink Heremites vittatus are separated from other populations of this taxon in Turkey. The values of most of morphological characters were higher in the Turkish populations. Morphological variation among populations of H. vittatus (Olivier, 1804) from Turkey and the western slopes of the Zagros Mountains in Kermanshah province in Iran may be the result of different dispersal and vicariance events. Comparison the current study dataset with specimens from Egypt can definite the taxonomic status of Iranian and Turkish populations.

Trend of Geographical Distribution of Stomach Cancer in Iran From 2004-2014

Background: Among different common types of cancer, Gastric cancer (GC) is a worldwide health priority in both developing and developed countries. The aim of this study was to map the distribution of incident cases of GC in Iran to provide a geographical presentation of the incidence of the disease.Methods: This study used the Iranian National Cancer Registry (INCR) data from 2004 to 2014. Excel was used to do the primary analysis including calculation of GC incidence for each province and also to provide a frequency table of the type and location of GC by the provinces. ArcGIS 10.5 (Redlands, CA, USA) mapping software was used to map the provincial age-standardized incidence rates by sex. The type and location of the GC cases were obtained from the NCR dataset.Results: According to the results of the present study, the patients were predominantly male 49,907 (70.0%). During the study period, the highest and lowest age-standardized incidence rates of GC in Iran in 2014 were reported from Ardebil (IR=30.19) and Ghom (IR=1.00) respectively. A significant difference was observed when the distribution of the location of GC tumors was compared between males and females (P<0.001).Conclusions: The results of the current study suggested a lower rate of GC incidence rate was reported in Iran when compared to the global figure in both females and males. The findings suggest involving different factors with different effects in GC among Iranian populations. Further studies are needed to better understand the epidemiology and etiology of the disease.