title: Recent radiation within Y-chromosomal haplogroup R-M269 resulted in high Y-STR haplotype resemblance.
abstract: Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) are often used in addition to Y-chromosomal single-nucleotide polymorphisms (Y-SNP) to detect subtle patterns in a population genetic structure. There are, however, indications for Y-STR haplotype resemblance across different subhaplogroups within haplogroup R1b1b2 (R-M269) which may lead to erosion in the observation of the population genetic pattern. Hence the question arises whether Y-STR haplotypes are still informative beyond high-resolution Y-SNP genotyping for population genetic studies. To address this question, we genotyped the Y chromosomes of more than 1000 males originating from the West-European regions of Flanders (Belgium), North-Brabant and Limburg (the Netherlands) at the highest resolution of the current Y-SNP tree together with 38 commonly used Y-STRs. We observed high resemblance of Y-STR haplotypes between males belonging to different subhaplogroups of haplogroup R-M269. Several subhaplogroups within R-M269 could not be distinguished from each other based on differences in Y-STR haplotype variation. The most likely hypothesis to explain this similarity of Y-STR haplotypes within the population of R-M269 members is a recent radiation where various subhaplogroups originated within a relatively short time period. We conclude that high-resolution Y-SNP typing rather than Y-STR typing might be more useful to study population genetic patterns in (Western) Europe.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Forensic Genetics and Molecular Archaeology, UZ Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Department of Imaging & Pathology, Biomedical Forensic Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Laboratory of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Genomics, Department of Biology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Maarten H D
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Larmuseau
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vanderheyden
authors.forename: Anneleen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van Geystelen
authors.forename: Mannis
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Oven
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: de Knijff
authors.forename: Ronny
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Decorte
mesh_terms: D001530:Belgium; D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D009426:Netherlands; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D044465:White People / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Western Europe; Y chromosome; Y-STRs; Y-chromosomal subhaplogroups; genetic discrimination; radiation