Phylogenetic applications of whole Y-chromosome sequences and the Near Eastern origin of Ashkenazi Levites

Siiri Rootsi, Doron M. Behar (), Mari Järve, Alice A. Lin, Natalie M. Myres, Ben Passarelli, G. David Poznik, Shay Tzur, Hovhannes Sahakyan, Ajai Kumar Pathak, Saharon Rosset, Mait Metspalu, Viola Grugni, Ornella Semino, Ene Metspalu, Carlos D. Bustamante, Karl Skorecki, Richard Villems, Toomas Kivisild and Peter A. Underhill
Additional contact information
Siiri Rootsi: University of Tartu
Doron M. Behar: University of Tartu
Mari Järve: University of Tartu
Alice A. Lin: Stanford University
Natalie M. Myres: Ancestry.com DNA
Ben Passarelli: Stanford University
G. David Poznik: Stanford University
Shay Tzur: Molecular Medicine Laboratory, Rambam Health Care Campus
Hovhannes Sahakyan: University of Tartu
Ajai Kumar Pathak: University of Tartu
Saharon Rosset: School of Mathematical Sciences, Tel-Aviv University
Mait Metspalu: University of Tartu
Viola Grugni: Università di Pavia
Ornella Semino: Università di Pavia
Ene Metspalu: University of Tartu
Carlos D. Bustamante: Stanford University
Karl Skorecki: Molecular Medicine Laboratory, Rambam Health Care Campus
Richard Villems: University of Tartu
Toomas Kivisild: University of Cambridge
Peter A. Underhill: Stanford University

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Previous Y-chromosome studies have demonstrated that Ashkenazi Levites, members of a paternally inherited Jewish priestly caste, display a distinctive founder event within R1a, the most prevalent Y-chromosome haplogroup in Eastern Europe. Here we report the analysis of 16 whole R1 sequences and show that a set of 19 unique nucleotide substitutions defines the Ashkenazi R1a lineage. While our survey of one of these, M582, in 2,834 R1a samples reveals its absence in 922 Eastern Europeans, we show it is present in all sampled R1a Ashkenazi Levites, as well as in 33.8% of other R1a Ashkenazi Jewish males and 5.9% of 303 R1a Near Eastern males, where it shows considerably higher diversity. Moreover, the M582 lineage also occurs at low frequencies in non-Ashkenazi Jewish populations. In contrast to the previously suggested Eastern European origin for Ashkenazi Levites, the current data are indicative of a geographic source of the Levite founder lineage in the Near East and its likely presence among pre-Diaspora Hebrews.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3928 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3928

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3928

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().