The Estonian: his insides

Photo: Kristjan Teedema / Tartu Postimees

Estonian Genome Centre, busy and bustling for a while now, has indeed discovered a thing or two about the Estonian. On the one hand, we are typical Europeans. On the other, even in the North and South of the tiny land we appear different. No German or Finnish genetic variant in the Estonian however, sayeth EGC chief Andres Metspalu.

The Genome Centre (EGC) was joined by 52,000 people, who gave the tests. What have you learned? An earlier Doctoral thesis said Estonians were genetically closer to North-Western Russians and Latvians than Finns. 

We have discovered that we are relatively similar to other Europeans. The most similar, of course, to those that dwell next to us. North-West Russia is indeed an ancient Finno-Ugric area, and the inhabitants in villages thereof are descendants of Finno-Ugric people. Newsweek wrote that the Russian president has the Finno-Ugric genotype as well.

Also, the Russians dwelling here have largely come from the Leningrad and Pskov oblasts, the neighbourhood of Novgorod and up to Staraya Russa – these are all old Finno-Ugric areas. With Finns, it seems the difference comes from the water between us, thus there was less interaction. With Latvians, we were together for a long time in Livonia and the boundaries between the nationalities only appeared last century.

What’s important is that we are very similar to Europeans and we do not have any sicknesses characteristic to Estonians, as the Finns have. Finland is large, but the people are few, and when during the king Wasa they were deported to the North they had to live in small separated groups. There, they cut and burned wood into fields, built huts and begat children between themselves. As a result of that, homozygote mutations developed which at times cause rare diseases. Here in Estonian nothing like this happened.

Way back when, ice went all the way to Nuremberg, people meanwhile living in groups in areas like Southern France and at Sea of Azov. The ice melted, the elk moved to the North, and the hunters followed. So that’s how we came here. Along the North-East line, genetic variants in Europe vary as to some being more frequent in the North, some towards the South. On the East-West line, the changes are small.

There’s been much talk about how, after the Great Northern War, Estonia was as good as empty of people and how all kinds of nations showed up beginning with Scots and ending with Russians. Lots of family legends tell of Baltic-German ancestry, but a look in the church books says we’re country bumpkins all of us.

Exactly! My oldest son Mait has been into genealogy as well. Up to the beginning of 18^th century, all my ancestors along father’s line are written down. No noblemen there, no warriors, no Scots not sailors. All hail from Lääne-Viru County, around Simuna.

We mapped 22 European nations on the basis of genetic data and detected no German genetic variants. Studying the Germans, we can even tell if they are from Northern or Southern Germany.

Currently, on the basis of genetic data, it is already possible to tell which corner of the world a person is and which is likeliest to be the nationality.

But do Southern and Northern Estonians differ?

They do. There is a difference indeed. The dividing line runs through Central Estonia, at where Livonian border used to be. We may clearly see that, on the map, Northern and Southern Estonians form two distinct clouds. For that, using mathematical methods, we analysed the data of over a thousand individuals.

With an even more detailed look at Estonians, we may more-or-less tell which county they are from.

Could the difference between Northern and Southern Estonians be put into words?

The difference is very small – only statistical and after the decimal point.

Up to the deportation, farming families stayed put on the same spot. People met in the county (kihelkond) and married in the county church. They seldom left the county. Up to the end of 1940ies, our rural people were rather sedentary. People did leave, but not many were added – such as people leaving the Isle of Saaremaa as there was not land enough, but none came from elsewhere.

We have a plan someday to sort all the DNSs that we have here. Then, we’ll have a very detailed database, and, on the basis of genetic data, we may perhaps be able to put together large families. Then, we will be able to look at the large family trees and see who is relative to whom.

And it turns out some children were not actually by the man written in the church book?

In the church books, it often also reads that the woman said the father was such and such but the recorder added that he doubted that. When some day we reach that information, human genome research law forbids issuing that to people. We may not release data regarding the descent of people. 

Even when a person wants to know about his own descent?

No we can’t, as he may indeed have doubts and who knows what the mother told him. But we can use these data to assess disease risks here within the genome centre. Relatives have like disease risks and similar genetic variants. It is turns out a person descends from somebody altogether different, he may not have such risks.

It may seem to us that we are rather different from the people that dwell southward. We like to say that the dark and the cold have driven us in the North towards alcoholism. How much is the impact of genes and how much the environment?

I am no specialist, but basically it seems the Italians and the French consume not much less alcohol. They do drink their wines rather much. It’s up to the culture, largely. Alcoholism is affected by some genes which are lacking, for instance, with the Asian nations. They will develop a terrible headache the day after they consumed alcohol; the hangover is strong as their organism, unlike that of ours, cannot demulsify alcohol. They feel so bad that they tend to not drink too much.

I know of no gene that would make somebody drink, but there are genetic variants related to developing an addiction. That goes for other narcotic substances as well.

Estonians are attributed several character traits like reticence; is that also related to the environment?

Such character traits like «reticence», «envy» or «anger» (it is always assumed an Estonian is very envious) are nothing special – I’ve lived in many places elsewhere for years and seen it all. What we have here is very human.

Culturally, perhaps, we are a bit like the Germans, we want to work a bit more diligently and look at the clock – unlike some nations towards the south. To a degree, it’s the Protestant attitude that one must not rejoice, but suffer! For the Catholics, it a bit looser, they get their sins forgiven easier. It’s the culture; genetically we are not much different from other Europeans.

Meanwhile, with experimental psychology professor Jüri Allik, we have studied psychological types of people and found that the main personality types have genetic basis. Whoever is shy and timid, is born like that. Same goes for the joyful and go-for-it people. Such personal characteristics cannot be changed by upbringing, at least not on the inside. In a crisis situation, the real me comes out, the essence of which is genetic.

Thus, an Estonian is a European like any other.

An Estonian is a drop in the genetic pond of Europe.