The island of Vis is one of the greatest genetic outliers among Eastern Adriatic islands. This study aims to portray the maternal legacy of the island of Vis, and to show its genetic differences in comparison to some other Eastern Adriatic islands. Vis is an open sea island, westernmost populated island of the Adriatic archipelago that belongs to the group of Central Dalmatian islands, and is quite remote, being divided 50 km from Mainland. In history of Eastern Adriatic islands, the most dramatic situation was probably on the island of Vis, whose population experienced two bottlenecks with a reduction in population size of about 50% each during the second half of the 20th century. We analysed 129 mtDNAs based on high resolution analysis of SNPs from the control and coding region. Results showed 9 different haplogroups and 27 different subhaplogroups. Most common haplogrup is H (30.2%), followed by U (26.4%), T (10.9%), V (6.2%), J and K (4.7% each), X and N (1.6% each) and W (0.8%). Haplotype analysis showed 45 different haplotypes, where the highest frequency of a single haplotype is 14.7% (U5b-16189-16270), and 35.6% are considered private haplotypes, which make the outlying genetic position of the island of Vis. This shows an action of the founder effect and one of the rarest subclades of haplogroup H, H15-16184, presents a founder effect in the island of Vis. East-west differentiation in mtDNA variation is also observed on the island of Vis, meaning that the total diversity is not homogeneously distributed. Villages on the island even today preserve extreme levels of isolation and high levels of linkage disequilibrium. The island of Vis is a genetic outlier which can be attributed to genetic drift, founder effect and distinctive phylogeographic affiliation. |
