title: Genome-wide diversity in the levant reveals recent structuring by culture.
abstract: The Levant is a region in the Near East with an impressive record of continuous human existence and major cultural developments since the Paleolithic period. Genetic and archeological studies present solid evidence placing the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula as the first stepping-stone outside Africa. There is, however, little understanding of demographic changes in the Middle East, particularly the Levant, after the first Out-of-Africa expansion and how the Levantine peoples relate genetically to each other and to their neighbors. In this study we analyze more than 500,000 genome-wide SNPs in 1,341 new samples from the Levant and compare them to samples from 48 populations worldwide. Our results show recent genetic stratifications in the Levant are driven by the religious affiliations of the populations within the region. Cultural changes within the last two millennia appear to have facilitated/maintained admixture between culturally similar populations from the Levant, Arabian Peninsula, and Africa. The same cultural changes seem to have resulted in genetic isolation of other groups by limiting admixture with culturally different neighboring populations. Consequently, Levant populations today fall into two main groups: one sharing more genetic characteristics with modern-day Europeans and Central Asians, and the other with closer genetic affinities to other Middle Easterners and Africans. Finally, we identify a putative Levantine ancestral component that diverged from other Middle Easterners ∼23,700-15,500 years ago during the last glacial period, and diverged from Europeans ∼15,900-9,100 years ago between the last glacial warming and the start of the Neolithic.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), Departament de Ciències de la Salut i de la Vida, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haber
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gauguier
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Youhanna
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.forename: Priya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Moorjani
authors.forename: Laura R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Botigué
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Platt
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Matisoo-Smith
authors.forename: David F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Soria-Hernanz
authors.forename: R Spencer
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.forename: Jaume
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bertranpetit
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tyler-Smith
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Comas
authors.forename: Pierre A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Zalloua
mesh_terms: D001106:Archaeology; D044383:Black People; D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y / Q000235:genetics*; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D015894:Genome, Human; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008877:Middle East; D010802:Phylogeny; D044465:White People
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial