Skip Navigation


MBE Advance Access originally published online on March 10, 2007
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2007 24(6):1300-1311; doi:10.1093/molbev/msm049
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Material
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
24/6/1300    most recent
msm049v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Cruciani, F.
Right arrow Articles by Scozzari, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Cruciani, F.
Right arrow Articles by Scozzari, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Research Articles

Tracing Past Human Male Movements in Northern/Eastern Africa and Western Eurasia: New Clues from Y-Chromosomal Haplogroups E-M78 and J-M12

Fulvio Cruciani*, Roberta La Fratta*, Beniamino Trombetta*, Piero Santolamazza*, Daniele Sellitto{dagger}, Eliane Beraud Colomb{ddagger}, Jean-Michel Dugoujon§, Federica Crivellaro*,1, Tamara Benincasa||, Roberto Pascone, Pedro Moral#, Elizabeth Watson**, Bela Melegh{dagger}{dagger}, Guido Barbujani{ddagger}{ddagger}, Silvia Fuselli{ddagger}{ddagger}, Giuseppe Vona§§, Boris Zagradisnik||||, Guenter Assum¶¶, Radim Brdicka##, Andrey I. Kozlov***, Georgi D. Efremov{dagger}{dagger}{dagger}, Alfredo Coppa{ddagger}{ddagger}{ddagger}, Andrea Novelletto§§§ and Rosaria Scozzari*,{dagger}

* Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
{dagger} Istituto di Biologia e Patologia Molecolari del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy
{ddagger} Laboratoire d'Immunologie, Hôpital de Sainte-Marguerite, Marseille, France
§ Laboratoire d'Anthropobiologie, FRE 2960 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France
|| Dipartimento di Biologia Cellulare, Università della Calabria, Rende, Italy
Dipartimento di Scienze Ginecologiche Perinatologia e Puericultura, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
# Departament de Biologia Animal, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
** The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden
{dagger}{dagger} Department of Medical Genetics and Child Development, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary
{ddagger}{ddagger} Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
§§ Dipartimento di Biologia Sperimentale, Università di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
|||| Laboratory of Medical Genetics, General Hospital Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
¶¶ Institut für Humangenetik, Universität Ulm, Ulm, Germany
## Institute for Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
*** ArctAn C Innovative Laboratory, Moscow, Russia
{dagger}{dagger}{dagger} Research Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
{ddagger}{ddagger}{ddagger} Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e dell'Uomo, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
§§§ Dipartimento di Biologia, Università "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy

E-mail: rosaria.scozzari{at}uniroma1.it.

Accepted for publication March 4, 2007.

Detailed population data were obtained on the distribution of novel biallelic markers that finely dissect the human Y-chromosome haplogroup E-M78. Among 6,501 Y chromosomes sampled in 81 human populations worldwide, we found 517 E-M78 chromosomes and assigned them to 10 subhaplogroups. Eleven microsatellite loci were used to further evaluate subhaplogroup internal diversification.

The geographic and quantitative analyses of haplogroup and microsatellite diversity is strongly suggestive of a northeastern African origin of E-M78, with a corridor for bidirectional migrations between northeastern and eastern Africa (at least 2 episodes between 23.9–17.3 ky and 18.0–5.9 ky ago), trans-Mediterranean migrations directly from northern Africa to Europe (mainly in the last 13.0 ky), and flow from northeastern Africa to western Asia between 20.0 and 6.8 ky ago.

A single clade within E-M78 (E-V13) highlights a range expansion in the Bronze Age of southeastern Europe, which is also detected by haplogroup J-M12. Phylogeography pattern of molecular radiation and coalescence estimates for both haplogroups are similar and reveal that the genetic landscape of this region is, to a large extent, the consequence of a recent population growth in situ rather than the result of a mere flow of western Asian migrants in the early Neolithic.

Our results not only provide a refinement of previous evolutionary hypotheses but also well-defined time frames for past human movements both in northern/eastern Africa and western Eurasia.

Key Words: Y-chromosome haplogroups • Y-chromosome phylogeography • human migrations • Bronze Age • European populations • African populations

1 Present address: Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Sarah Tishkoff, Associate Editor


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.