Tracing past human male movements in northern/eastern Africa and western Eurasia: new clues from Y-chromosomal haplogroups E-M78 and J-M12.
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.
Cruciani
Fulvio
F
Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy, and Laboratoire d'Immunologie, Hôpital de Sainte-Marguerite, Marseille, France.
La Fratta
Roberta
R
Trombetta
Beniamino
B
Santolamazza
Piero
P
Sellitto
Daniele
D
Colomb
Eliane Beraud
EB
Dugoujon
Jean-Michel
JM
Crivellaro
Federica
F
Benincasa
Tamara
T
Pascone
Roberto
R
Moral
Pedro
P
Watson
Elizabeth
E
Melegh
Bela
B
Barbujani
Guido
G
Fuselli
Silvia
S
Vona
Giuseppe
G
Zagradisnik
Boris
B
Assum
Guenter
G
Brdicka
Radim
R
Kozlov
Andrey I
AI
Efremov
Georgi D
GD
Coppa
Alfredo
A
Novelletto
Andrea
A
Scozzari
Rosaria
R
D000351:Africa, Eastern; D000352:Africa, Northern; D001211:Asia, Western; D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y / Q000235:genetics*; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005060:Europe; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019021:Natural History