Probable ways for spreading domestic chicken genes from Asia to Russia: analysis of the genogeographic studies of A.S. Serebrovskii

The unique material of A.S. Serebrovsky's gene-geographic studies, most of which is kept at the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was analyzed and summarized. A comparison of 58 populations of the domestic chicken was conducted. These populations were described by Serebrovsky and his coworkers in 23 regions of the former USSR from 1926 to 1933. On the dendrogram constructed on the basis of a comparison between the frequencies of 14 genes of the domestic chicken, three major clusters can be detected. Russian populations formed a separate cluster. Ukrainian populations clustered with some North-Caucasian populations. The Bashkir chicken populations were shown to be unique. A parallel change in frequencies of some gene pairs (termed by Serebrovsky "gene parallelism") was studied. As a result, three pathways for spreading domestic chickens from Asia to Russia were suggested: through Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.