GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

From:
Subject: [DNA] New Article on E3b
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 23:16:06 +0000

Hi all,

The following article has just come out in the Am. J. of Human Genetics, and the full text will be available to those who can get to a university library...

Phylogeographic Analysis of Haplogroup E3b (E-M215) Y Chromosomes Reveals Multiple Migratory Events Within and Out Of Africa

[There are many authors including well-known names in the field]

We explored the phylogeography of human Y-chromosomal haplogroup E3b by analyzing 3,401 individuals from five continents. Our data refine the phylogeny of the entire haplogroup, which appears as a collection of lineages with very different evolutionary histories, and reveal signatures of several distinct processes of migrations and/or recurrent gene flow that occurred in Africa and western Eurasia over the past 25,000 years. In Europe, the overall frequency pattern of haplogroup E-M78 does not support the hypothesis of a uniform spread of people from a single parental Near Eastern population. The distribution of E-M81 chromosomes in Africa closely matches the present area of distribution of Berber-speaking populations on the continent, suggesting a close haplogroup ethnic group parallelism. E-M34 chromosomes were more likely introduced in Ethiopia from the Near East. In conclusion, the present study shows that earlier work based on fewer Y-chromosome markers led to rather si!
mple historical interpretations and highlights the fact that many population-genetic analyses are not robust to a poorly resolved phylogeny.

Note that when they say E-M78, E-81, or E-M34, they are following the excellent practice of identifying the sub-clades of a haplogroup by their SNP mutations.

E-M78 is E3b1, E-M81 is E3b2, and E-M34 is E3b3a. So no one, at this point, who has been assigned to the E3b haplogroup will know which he belongs to. Still, it sounds interesting, and their point, "earlier work based on fewer Y-chromosome markers led to rather simple historical interpretations and highlights the fact that many population-genetic analyses are not robust to a poorly resolved phylogeny," should apply to other haplogroups as well -- like all of you poor guys in R1b, someday, let's hope! As well as R1a, I, etc.

Bonnie

This thread:

• [DNA] New Article on E3b by