Abstract
During successive historical periods, Tunisia has been a crossroads of multiple civilizations and their corresponding key population movements. The aim of this study was to provide genetic information relating to the mixed origin of the Tunisian population, and to analyze its genetic relationship with other North African and Mediterranean populations. A set of 16 Alu and 3 Alu/STR compound systems has been analyzed in 268 autochthonous Tunisians from the north-center and the south of the country. Our two sampled populations showed no significant differentiation from one another in any of the three Alu/STR compound systems, whereas the analysis of the 16 Alu markers revealed a significant genetic differentiation between them. A sub-Saharan component shown by the three Alu/STR combinations is more noticeable in our north-center sample than in that of the south. The presence of two Alu/STR combinations specific to North African ancestral populations also suggests that the ancient Berber component is relatively more substantial in the north and center regions than in the south. Our Tunisian samples cluster together with other Berber samples from Morocco and Algeria, underpinning the genetic similarity among North Africans regardless of their current linguistic status (Berber or Arabic).
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Acknowledgements
We thank all the anonymous people for their participation in the study. This research has been supported in part by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education within the research unity 05/UR/09-04, by the Spanish Ministry of Educación y Ciencia Grant CGL2008-03955, the Generalitat de Catalunya 2009SGR1408 grant, and by the Universitat de Barcelona grants of the Oficina de Mobilitat i Programes Internacionals and the Vicerrectorat de Relacions Internacionals i Institucionals.
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El Moncer, W., Esteban, E., Bahri, R. et al. Mixed origin of the current Tunisian population from the analysis of Alu and Alu/STR compound systems. J Hum Genet 55, 827–833 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhg.2010.120
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jhg.2010.120
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