Origin of Azeris (Iran) according to HLA genes

Azeris from Iran North West provinces (Tabriz city) have been studied for HLA alleles. A total of 8.902 HLA-bearing chromosomes (Chr 6) have been used for comparing their relatedness with other Middle East, Caucasus, Mediterranean and Central Asia populations. Mediterranean, Central Asian and Caucasus extended HLA haplotypes were found, i.e.: A*24:02-B*35:01-DBR1*11:01-DBQ1*03:01 and A*01:02-B*08:01-DRB1*03:01-DQB1*02:01. Genetic distances, Neighbour Joining and Correspondence analyses also showed that Azeris were close to Kurds, who have shown a closer Mediterranean/Caucasus HLA profile, and Gorgan (Turkmen) who have shown a closer Central Asia profile, as expected. It is shown that three different Iranian populations according to Language, History and Geography: Gorgans, Kurds and Azeris are genetically close. In fact, old Azeri language (Adari) was an Iranian language and not a Turkic one, which they nowadays speak. Also, present study does not support “Aryan” invasion from the East in accordance with many other previous studies. Finally, our results are useful for establishing Preventive Medicine programs in Transplantation and HLA and Pharmacogenomics/Disease linkage.