Abstract
To obtain refreshed insights into the paternal lineages of Tunisian populations, Y-chromosome diversity was assessed in two populations belonging to an Arab genealogical lineage, Kairouan and Wesletia, as well as in four Tunisian Andalusian populations, Testour, Slouguia, Qalaat-El-Andalous and El Alia. The Arabs from Kairouan revealed 73.47% of E-M81 and close affinities with Berber groups, indicating they are likely arabized Berbers, clearly differentiated from the Arabs from Wesletia, who harbored the highest frequency (71.8%) of the Middle Eastern component ever observed in North Africa. In the Tunisian Andalusians, the North African component largely prevailed, followed by the Middle Eastern contribution. Global comparative analysis highlighted the heterogeneity of Tunisian populations, among which, as a whole, dominated a set of lineages ascribed to be of autochthonous Berber origin (71.67%), beside a component of essentially Middle Eastern extraction (18.35%), and signatures of Sub-Saharan (5.2%), European (3.45%) and Asiatic (1.33%) contributions. The remarkable frequency of T-M70 in Wesletia (17.4%) prompted to refine its phylogeographic analysis, allowing to confirm its Middle Eastern origin, though signs of local evolution in Northern Africa were also detected. Evidence was clear on the ancient introduction of T lineages into the region, probably since Neolithic times associated to spread of agriculture.
Highlights
To obtain refreshed insights into the paternal lineages of Tunisian populations, Y-chromosome diversity was assessed in two populations belonging to an Arab genealogical lineage, Kairouan and Wesletia, as well as in four Tunisian Andalusian populations, Testour, Slouguia, Qalaat-El-Andalous and El Alia
Tunisia was primarily inhabited by autochthonous Berber populations that faced the arrival of successive waves of invaders, most of them coming from the Middle East: i) Phoenicians, originally from Lebanon, who founded Carthage in the twelfth century BC; later ii) the Arab Muslims who conquered the region in the seventh century that would lead to the foundation of Kairouan, the first Islamic city in Northwest Africa; and later on iii) the Bedouins in consequence of the invasion of Banu Hilal tribes coming from the Arabian Peninsula in the eleventh century
In the Arabs from Wesletia, haplogroups typically found in Middle Eastern populations were very well represented, summing up a combined frequency of 71.8%, whereas the North African substrate was detected at the moderate frequency of 23.9% and the European only attained the frequency of 4.3% (Fig. 1a)
Summary
To obtain refreshed insights into the paternal lineages of Tunisian populations, Y-chromosome diversity was assessed in two populations belonging to an Arab genealogical lineage, Kairouan and Wesletia, as well as in four Tunisian Andalusian populations, Testour, Slouguia, Qalaat-El-Andalous and El Alia. Tunisia was primarily inhabited by autochthonous Berber populations that faced the arrival of successive waves of invaders, most of them coming from the Middle East: i) Phoenicians, originally from Lebanon, who founded Carthage in the twelfth century BC; later ii) the Arab Muslims who conquered the region in the seventh century that would lead to the foundation of Kairouan, the first Islamic city in Northwest Africa; and later on iii) the Bedouins in consequence of the invasion of Banu Hilal tribes coming from the Arabian Peninsula in the eleventh century. This haplogroup is considered to be one of the signatures of the spread of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula[15,24,25,26,27,28,29,30], it retains clues on a much earlier expansion during Neolithic times as part of the previously mentioned Capsian cultural complex that was introduced in North Africa along with agriculture[9,12,15,29,31]
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