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

  1. Rosaria Scozzari*
  1. *Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
  2. Istituto di Biologia e Patologia Molecolari del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy
  3. Laboratoire d'Immunologie, Hôpital de Sainte-Marguerite, Marseille, France
  4. §Laboratoire d'Anthropobiologie, FRE 2960 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France
  5. Dipartimento di Biologia Cellulare, Università della Calabria, Rende, Italy
  6. Dipartimento di Scienze Ginecologiche Perinatologia e Puericultura, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
  7. #Departament de Biologia Animal, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
  8. **The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden
  9. ††Department of Medical Genetics and Child Development, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary
  10. ‡‡Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
  11. §§Dipartimento di Biologia Sperimentale, Università di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
  12. ‖‖Laboratory of Medical Genetics, General Hospital Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
  13. ¶¶Institut für Humangenetik, Universität Ulm, Ulm, Germany
  14. ##Institute for Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic
  15. ***ArctAn C Innovative Laboratory, Moscow, Russia
  16. †††Research Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
  17. ‡‡‡Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e dell'Uomo, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
  18. §§§Dipartimento di Biologia, Università “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy
  1. E-mail: rosaria.scozzari{at}uniroma1.it.
  • Accepted March 4, 2007.

Abstract

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.

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    1. Mol Biol Evol 24 (6): 1300-1311. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msm049
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