[LCM Articles] Y-Chromosomal Diversity in Lebanon is Structured by Recent Historical Events

[Loai Naamani]

Abstract

Lebanon is an eastern Mediterranean country inhabited by approximately four
million people with a wide variety of ethnicities and religions, including
Muslim, Christian, and Druze. In the present study, 926 Lebanese men were
typed with Y-chromosomal SNP and STR markers, and unusually, male genetic
variation within Lebanon was found to be more strongly structured by
religious affiliation than by geography. We therefore tested the hypothesis
that migrations within historical times could have contributed to this
situation. Y-haplogroup J*(xJ2) was more frequent in the putative Muslim
source region (the Arabian Peninsula) than in Lebanon, and it was also more
frequent in Lebanese Muslims than in Lebanese non-Muslims. Conversely,
haplogroup R1b was more frequent in the putative Christian source region
(western Europe) than in Lebanon and was also more frequent in Lebanese
Christians than in Lebanese non-Christians. The most common R1b
STR-haplotype in Lebanese Christians was otherwise highly specific for
western Europe and was unlikely to have reached its current frequency in
Lebanese Christians without admixture. We therefore suggest that the Islamic
expansion from the Arabian Peninsula beginning in the seventh century CE
introduced lineages typical of this area into those who subsequently became
Lebanese Muslims, whereas the Crusader activity in the 11(th)-13(th)
centuries CE introduced western European lineages into Lebanese Christians.


Authors
Zalloua PA, Xue Y, Khalife J, Makhoul N, Debiane L, Platt DE, Royyuru
AK,Herrera RJ, Hernanz DF, Blue-Smith J, Wells RS, Comas D, Bertranpetit
J,Tyler-Smith C; Genographic Consortium

Full Paper
http://www.ajhg.org/images/latestarticles/zalloua.pdf

 

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