A substantial prehistoric European ancestry amongst Ashkenazi maternal lineages

Costa, M. D. et al. (2013) A substantial prehistoric European ancestry amongst Ashkenazi maternal lineages. Nature Communications, 4, 2543. (doi: 10.1038/ncomms3543) (PMID:24104924) (PMCID:PMC3806353)

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Abstract

The origins of Ashkenazi Jews remain highly controversial. Like Judaism, mitochondrial DNA is passed along the maternal line. Its variation in the Ashkenazim is highly distinctive, with four major and numerous minor founders. However, due to their rarity in the general population, these founders have been difficult to trace to a source. Here we show that all four major founders, ~40% of Ashkenazi mtDNA variation, have ancestry in prehistoric Europe, rather than the Near East or Caucasus. Furthermore, most of the remaining minor founders share a similar deep European ancestry. Thus the great majority of Ashkenazi maternal lineages were not brought from the Levant, as commonly supposed, nor recruited in the Caucasus, as sometimes suggested, but assimilated within Europe. These results point to a significant role for the conversion of women in the formation of Ashkenazi communities, and provide the foundation for a detailed reconstruction of Ashkenazi genealogical history.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Macaulay, Dr Vincent
Authors: Costa, M. D., Pereira, J. B., Pala, M., Fernandes, V., Olivieri, A., Achilli, A., Perego, U. A., Rychkov, S., Naumova, O., Hatina, J., Woodward, S. R., Eng, K. K., Macaulay, V., Carr, M., Soares, P., Pereira, L., and Richards, M. B.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Mathematics and Statistics > Statistics
Journal Name:Nature Communications
Publisher:Nature Publishing Group
ISSN:2041-1723
ISSN (Online):2041-1723
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2013 The Authors
First Published:First published in Nature Communications 4:2543
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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