In the present study using autosomal SNPs and high density genotyping, we have focused on the genetic structure of the Baltic, Finnish and other North-Eastern European populations, while populations from Western and Southern Europe were included mainly for comparison (Figure 2). Overall the samples under investigation have a large geographic coverage, ranging from Spain and Italy, through the Baltic to Finland and Western Russia. Previous studies have focused upon the genetic structure in Central and Western Europe [11]–[13], Northern Europe [17], [25] or studied US Americans of European and Ashkenazi-Jewish descent [14], [15].
