>Chechnya

>MENA

>We quantified genetic differentiation between the ital population and the subset of HGDP-CEPH populations from Northern Europe (French), the Middle East (Druze, Palestinians and Bedouin), Northern Africa (Mozabite,) and from HapMap CEU, by calculating the pair-wise FST statistics. Estimates are given in Table 2. Notably, the genetic distance between Sardinia and each of the mainland ital populations (FST=0.004) was slightly lower than for many other European population pairs separated by larger geographical distances, for example, Southern ital and CEU (FST=0.005). In general, FST was lower between population pairs in closer geographical proximity like Southern ital vs Central ital (FST=0.001). Southern ital showed a genetic affinity with Middle East populations, such as Palestinian and Druze; and Northern ital populations were genetically closer to the French and CEU populations. However, it should be stressed that the estimates are less accurate for pairs involving a population with a small sample size.