Commentary: Portuguese crypto-Jews: the genetic heritage of a complex history.

Alexander W Marcus,Daniel A Friedman,Emily R Ebel

doi:10.3389/fgene.2015.00261

Abstract

Nogueiro et al. (2015) utilize Y chromosome and mitochondrial genotype data from a contemporary Iberian and non-Iberian human populations to explore the genetic identity of Portuguese “crypto-Jews.” In the first section of the paper, a historical introduction reviews the plight of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula from the earliest archaeological evidence, through the Inquisition, to the current day. In the second section, Y chromosome and mtDNA population genetic data from many previous studies are reviewed, along with a reanalysis of data from two Portuguese Jewish populations. In the final section, a historical narrative of the Portuguese crypto-Jews is presented, caveats to the analysis are discussed, and future directions are suggested.

Highlights

Nogueiro et al (2015) utilize Y chromosome and mitochondrial genotype data from a contemporary Iberian and non-Iberian human populations to explore the genetic identity of Portuguese “crypto-Jews.” In the first section of the paper, a historical introduction reviews the plight of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula from the earliest archaeological evidence, through the Inquisition, to the current day
Nogueiro et al acknowledge that “the inference of a genetic profile for the Portuguese Jews was not possible” from a study of self-defined Sephardic Jews (Adams et al, 2008), and instead focus their analysis on two smaller Jewish populations. Their acknowledgment that there is no diagnostic Jewish genetic profile, which is supported by the data presented, appears to contradict the major conclusion of the paper: that Iberian Jews have “succeeded in maintaining a genetic heritage of their own.”
The results and analysis offer no concrete support for specific statements about the mating habits, beliefs, and/or praxis of these historical Jewish populations

Summary

Introduction

Nogueiro et al (2015) utilize Y chromosome and mitochondrial genotype data from a contemporary Iberian and non-Iberian human populations to explore the genetic identity of Portuguese “crypto-Jews.” In the first section of the paper, a historical introduction reviews the plight of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula from the earliest archaeological evidence, through the Inquisition, to the current day. A commentary on Portuguese crypto-Jews: the genetic heritage of a complex history by Nogueiro, I., Teixeira, J.

Results

Conclusion