A Genome-Wide Search for Greek and Jewish Admixture in the Kashmiri Population.

Jonathan M Downie,Josef T Prchal,Felipe Ramos Lorenzo,Hyder Mir,Julie Ellen Feusier,Tsewang Tashi,Lynn B Jorde,Parvaiz A Koul,Francesc Calafell

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0160614

Jonathan M Downie, Josef T Prchal + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160614

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Abstract

The Kashmiri population is an ethno-linguistic group that resides in the Kashmir Valley in northern India. A longstanding hypothesis is that this population derives ancestry from Jewish and/or Greek sources. There is historical and archaeological evidence of ancient Greek presence in India and Kashmir. Further, some historical accounts suggest ancient Hebrew ancestry as well. To date, it has not been determined whether signatures of Greek or Jewish admixture can be detected in the Kashmiri population. Using genome-wide genotyping and admixture detection methods, we determined there are no significant or substantial signs of Greek or Jewish admixture in modern-day Kashmiris. The ancestry of Kashmiri Tibetans was also determined, which showed signs of admixture with populations from northern India and west Eurasia. These results contribute to our understanding of the existing population structure in northern India and its surrounding geographical areas.

Highlights

The Kashmiri population is an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group from Jammu and Kashmir state in northern India
38 sample arrays failed the contrast QC step and were removed from the analysis (Table 1), and an additional 147 samples were removed due to low (
principal components analysis (PCA) identified 54 samples as genetic outliers that were subsequently discarded from further consideration (Table 1). 1,437 samples that were genotyped by the Affymetrix SNP 6.0 array passed all QC standards. 4,351 samples in total, including 12

Summary

Introduction

The Kashmiri population is an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group from Jammu and Kashmir state in northern India. It has been suggested that they are descendants of one of the “lost tribes” of Israel who were exiled in 722 BCE [1] They are believed to have traveled along the Silk Road into the countries of the Middle East, Persia, and Afghanistan until they reached the Kashmir Valley and settled there [2]. It is thought that many of Alexander’s conscripts and soldiers settled in parts of India, including Kashmir, and intermixed with the local population once his conquests ended in India. This hypothesis has been supported by archeological evidence of ancient Greek presence in Kashmir [3].

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