Seven SNPs and YAP demonstrate that the chromosome Y lineages of Basques are different from Georgians and Berbers

Abstract

The Y chromosome is an important tool for discriminating related males and populations. The short tandem repeat (STR) markers of the Y chromosome are highly variable and can therefore discriminate between chromosomes of different paternal lineages, which is of great usefulness in forensic casework. The power of discrimination of each single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker is lower than that of STR markers, although a broad combination of them also provides high discrimination capacity. SNP markers provide an additional advantage over STRs because they have more capacity for distinguishing human population groups and within specific populations. Thus, they are a useful tool for evaluating similarities between Basque, Georgian and Berber populations. The relationships found to date among these populations are based, principally, on linguistic data [1,4,6]. Previous genetic data have only related Basque and Berber populations [2]. Given the evidence reported so far, a more detailed study appeared necessary to evaluate the genetic relationships between Basque, Georgian and Berber populations. Accordingly, we decided to use SNP markers of the Y chromosome as the best tool for discriminating among populations.