Author(s):
Behar, DM ; Metspalu, E ; Kivisild, T ; Achilli, A ; Hadid, Y ; Tzur, S ; Pereira, L ; Amorim, A ; Quintana-Murci, L ; Majamaa, K ; Herrnstadt, C ; Howell, N ; Balanovsky, O ; Kutuev, I ; Pshenichnov, A ; Gurwitz, D ; Bonne-Tamir, B ; Torroni, A ; Villems, R ; Skorecki, K
Date: 2006
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10216/109578
Origin: Repositório Aberto da Universidade do Porto
Subject(s): Base Sequence; DNA Mitochondrial/genetics; Female; Founder Effect; Humans; Jews/classification; Jews/ethnology; Jews/genetics; Male; Molecular Sequence Data; Phylogeny
Description
Both the extent and location of the maternal ancestral deme from which the Ashkenazi Jewry arose remain obscure. Here, using complete sequences of the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), we show that close to one-half of Ashkenazi Jews, estimated at 8,000,000 people, can be traced back to only 4 women carrying distinct mtDNAs that are virtually absent in other populations, with the important exception of low frequencies among non-Ashkenazi Jews. We conclude that four founding mtDNAs, likely of Near Eastern ancestry, underwent major expansion(s) in Europe within the past millennium.
