Thousands of Qatari genomes inform human migration history and improve imputation of Arab haplotypes

Rozaimi Mohamad Razali, Juan Rodriguez-Flores, Mohammadmersad Ghorbani, Haroon Naeem, Waleed Aamer, Elbay Aliyev, Ali Jubran, Andrew G. Clark, Khalid A. Fakhro () and Younes Mokrab ()
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Rozaimi Mohamad Razali: Sidra Medicine
Juan Rodriguez-Flores: Weill Cornell Medicine
Mohammadmersad Ghorbani: Sidra Medicine
Haroon Naeem: Sidra Medicine
Waleed Aamer: Sidra Medicine
Elbay Aliyev: Sidra Medicine
Ali Jubran: Sidra Medicine
Andrew G. Clark: Cornell University
Khalid A. Fakhro: Sidra Medicine
Younes Mokrab: Sidra Medicine

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Arab populations are largely understudied, notably their genetic structure and history. Here we present an in-depth analysis of 6,218 whole genomes from Qatar, revealing extensive diversity as well as genetic ancestries representing the main founding Arab genealogical lineages of Qahtanite (Peninsular Arabs) and Adnanite (General Arabs and West Eurasian Arabs). We find that Peninsular Arabs are the closest relatives of ancient hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers from the Levant, and that founder Arab populations experienced multiple splitting events 12–20 kya, consistent with the aridification of Arabia and farming in the Levant, giving rise to settler and nomadic communities. In terms of recent genetic flow, we show that these ancestries contributed significantly to European, South Asian as well as South American populations, likely as a result of Islamic expansion over the past 1400 years. Notably, we characterize a large cohort of men with the ChrY J1a2b haplogroup (n = 1,491), identifying 29 unique sub-haplogroups. Finally, we leverage genotype novelty to build a reference panel of 12,432 haplotypes, demonstrating improved genotype imputation for both rare and common alleles in Arabs and the wider Middle East.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25287-y

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