Abstract
Haplogroup J1 is a prevalent Y-chromosome lineage within the Near East. We report the frequency and YSTR diversity data for its major sub-clade (J1e). The overall expansion time estimated from 453 chromosomes is 10 000 years. Moreover, the previously described J1 (DYS388=13) chromosomes, frequently found in the Caucasus and eastern Anatolian populations, were ancestral to J1e and displayed an expansion time of 9000 years. For J1e, the Zagros/Taurus mountain region displays the highest haplotype diversity, although the J1e frequency increases toward the peripheral Arabian Peninsula. The southerly pattern of decreasing expansion time estimates is consistent with the serial drift and founder effect processes. The first such migration is predicted to have occurred at the onset of the Neolithic, and accordingly J1e parallels the establishment of rain-fed agriculture and semi-nomadic herders throughout the Fertile Crescent. Subsequently, J1e lineages might have been involved in episodes of the expansion of pastoralists into arid habitats coinciding with the spread of Arabic and other Semitic-speaking populations.
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Acknowledgements
We thank A Silvana Santachiara-Benerecetti for providing the Ethiopian samples to OS. We thank Golden Software, Inc, for assistance with the spatial frequency maps. This work was supported by a grant from the France-Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies to RK and OHLL, Origine de l’Homme des Langues et du Language to JC.
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Chiaroni, J., King, R., Myres, N. et al. The emergence of Y-chromosome haplogroup J1e among Arabic-speaking populations. Eur J Hum Genet 18, 348–353 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2009.166
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2009.166
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