Genomic microsatellites identify shared Jewish ancestry intermediate between Middle Eastern and European populations

Naama M Kopelman,Marcus W Feldman,Lewi Stone,Jossi Hillel,Chaolong Wang,Dov Gefel,Noah A Rosenberg

doi:10.1186/1471-2156-10-80

Abstract

BackgroundGenetic studies have often produced conflicting results on the question of whether distant Jewish populations in different geographic locations share greater genetic similarity to each other or instead, to nearby non-Jewish populations. We perform a genome-wide population-genetic study of Jewish populations, analyzing 678 autosomal microsatellite loci in 78 individuals from four Jewish groups together with similar data on 321 individuals from 12 non-Jewish Middle Eastern and European populations.ResultsWe find that the Jewish populations show a high level of genetic similarity to each other, clustering together in several types of analysis of population structure. Further, Bayesian clustering, neighbor-joining trees, and multidimensional scaling place the Jewish populations as intermediate between the non-Jewish Middle Eastern and European populations.ConclusionThese results support the view that the Jewish populations largely share a common Middle Eastern ancestry and that over their history they have undergone varying degrees of admixture with non-Jewish populations of European descent.

Highlights

Genetic studies have often produced conflicting results on the question of whether distant Jewish populations in different geographic locations share greater genetic similarity to each other or instead, to nearby non-Jewish populations
The discovery of shared Y chromosomes common in separate Jewish populations from different geographic regions has strengthened the evidence for shared Jewish genetic ancestry, but as evidenced in the considerable attention given in Israel to the 2008 scholarly book "When and how was the Jewish people invented" [20], debate continues regarding the issue of whether separate Jewish populations have any deep shared genetic ancestry beyond that shared with non-Jewish groups
Samples To compare the genetic variability of Jewish populations with that of other Middle Eastern and European groups, we examined a sample of 399 individuals, representing four Jewish groups defined by their origin prior to 20th century migrations, as well as 12 other Middle Eastern and European populations from the HGDP-CEPH Human Genome Diversity Cell Line Panel [21]

Summary

Introduction

Genetic studies have often produced conflicting results on the question of whether distant Jewish populations in different geographic locations share greater genetic similarity to each other or instead, to nearby non-Jewish populations. Large-scale genomic studies have contributed to a growing body of knowledge about the population structure of a wide variety of human populations [1,2,3,4,5]. Such studies have enabled precise inferences about the relationships of closely related groups, about the extent to which individuals in neighboring populations can be genetically distinguished, and about the potential of genetics for inference of ancestry at the intracontinental level. Whereas Karlin et al [13] observed that most Jewish populations had lower genetic distance to other Jewish populations than to non-Jewish European and Middle Eastern populations included in their study, Carmelli & Cavalli-Sforza [17] found that a discriminant analysis scattered Jewish populations among clusters corresponding to various non-Jewish European and Middle Eastern groups

Methods

Results

Conclusion