Abstract
Haplogroup G, together with J2 clades, has been associated with the spread of agriculture, especially in the European context. However, interpretations based on simple haplogroup frequency clines do not recognize underlying patterns of genetic diversification. Although progress has been recently made in resolving the haplogroup G phylogeny, a comprehensive survey of the geographic distribution patterns of the significant sub-clades of this haplogroup has not been conducted yet. Here we present the haplogroup frequency distribution and STR variation of 16 informative G sub-clades by evaluating 1472 haplogroup G chromosomes belonging to 98 populations ranging from Europe to Pakistan. Although no basal G-M201* chromosomes were detected in our data set, the homeland of this haplogroup has been estimated to be somewhere nearby eastern Anatolia, Armenia or western Iran, the only areas characterized by the co-presence of deep basal branches as well as the occurrence of high sub-haplogroup diversity. The P303 SNP defines the most frequent and widespread G sub-haplogroup. However, its sub-clades have more localized distribution with the U1-defined branch largely restricted to Near/Middle Eastern and the Caucasus, whereas L497 lineages essentially occur in Europe where they likely originated. In contrast, the only U1 representative in Europe is the G-M527 lineage whose distribution pattern is consistent with regions of Greek colonization. No clinal patterns were detected suggesting that the distributions are rather indicative of isolation by distance and demographic complexities.
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Acknowledgements
JD and JC were supported by ANR program AFGHAPOP No BLAN07-9_222301’. RV and DMB thank the European Commission, Directorate-General for Research for FP7 Ecogene grant 205419. RV thanks the European Union Regional Development Fund for support through the Centre of Excellence in Genomics, the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research for the Basic Research grant SF 0270177As08. SR thanks the Estonian Science Foundation for grant 7445 and M Metspalu for grant 8973. EKK thanks the Russian Academy of Sciences Program for Fundamental Research ‘Biodiversity and dynamics of gene pools’, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for state contracts P-325 and 02.740.11.07.01, and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research for grants 04-04-48678-а and 07-04-01016-а. IK thanks the Russian Foundation for Basic Research for grant 08-06-97011 and the Grant of the President of the Russian Federation of state support for young Russian scientists MK-488.2006.4. OS thanks the Italian Ministry of the University: Progetti Ricerca Interesse Nazionale 2009 and FIRB-Futuro in Ricerca 2008 and Fondazione Alma Mater Ticinensins. AAL thanks the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation. PAU thanks Professor Carlos D Bustamante. MH and MHS are thankful to the ‘National Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology’, Tehran, Iran, and the ‘National Research Institute for Science policy’, Tehran, Iran, for providing the samples.
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Rootsi, S., Myres, N., Lin, A. et al. Distinguishing the co-ancestries of haplogroup G Y-chromosomes in the populations of Europe and the Caucasus. Eur J Hum Genet 20, 1275–1282 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2012.86
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2012.86
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