Ashkenazi levites' "Y modal haplotype" (LMH)-- an artificially created phenomenon?

The article on the Y chromosomes of Ashkenazi Levites (Behar et al., 2003. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 73, 768-779) is the fourth in a series on the Y chromosomes of the three Jewish male castes: Cohanim (priests), Levites (priests' helpers) and Israelites (lay people). It became apparent that there is a problem with omission of samples when the second article "Origins of Old Testament priests" (Thomas et al., 1998. Nature 394, 138-140) was published. In the fourth article a remarkable 55% of the Ashkenazi Levite samples from the earlier 1998 study are not included. This causes the "Levite modal haplotype" to double its frequency from 21% of the Ashkenazi Levite sample in 1998 to 42% of the Ashkenazi Levite sample in 2003. The authors offer three main explanations: (1) The studies are independent using different sample sets.(2) Typing errors and poor quality exclude samples from future studies.(3) Correction of typing errors means that some samples are classified under different haplotypes. The explanations offered to the problem of omitting samples from subsequent studies after their haplotypes or partial haplotypes are known, are not convincing. Consequently their sample sets cannot be considered random and non-biased. At the least, these laboratories have bad practices of sample handling and many typing errors, which are enough to invalidate their studies.

Protein electrophoretic markers in Israel: compilation of data and genetic affinities.

BACKGROUND: A considerable body of data has been accumulated since the 1960s on protein electrophoretic markers in the Jewish populations of Israel. However, in some Jewish communities and for some markers insufficient information has been available. In addition, studies that tried to explore the genetic affinities of various Jewish populations mainly employed antigenic markers and frequently used a small and unrepresentative number of non-Jewish populations as comparisons. AIM: The primary objectives of the present study were to create a comprehensive database for protein electrophoretic markers in Israel and thereby to explore the genetic affinities of different Jewish populations. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Published information on red cell enzyme and serum protein polymorphisms in Israeli Jewish populations was combined with new data obtained by protein electrophoresis and DNA PCR (polymerase chain reaction) methods to create the database. The genetic affinities were investigated by two methods. Ten Jewish populations were classified in a discriminant analysis based on nine markers and 65 non-Jewish populations. The same markers and populations were also used in a genetic distance analysis. RESULTS: The database contains new information on 15 protein electrophoretic markers in 14 Israeli populations, including three Jewish populations from Turkey, Tunisia and the Caucasus region, for which no or only scarce data were previously available. The discriminant analysis resulted in only two Jewish populations, from Iraq and Yemen, being classified within the Middle Eastern group. According to their genetic distances, no particular genetic similarity was observed between the various Jewish study populations. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to the conclusions of several previous studies, there was no evidence for close genetic affinities among the Jewish populations or for a Middle Eastern origin for most of them. Since the study is the first to use only the more reliable protein electrophoretic markers, and an appropriately comprehensive panel of non-Jewish populations, the results are regarded as the most reliable available to date.

Prevalence of genetic versus environmental factors in human female temporal organization: preliminary analysis.

Genetic diversity among ethnic groups is studied by comparing the genetic fingerprint of the examined groups. This index is constructed by aggregating the differential frequencies of various marker characteristics. Recent advances in the study of human biological rhythms may provide new indexes that will complement the genetic profile of a population. One of the rhythm parameters that is especially useful for this purpose is the acrophase (peak time location). The aim of the present study is to construct a rhythm profile based on acrophase distribution for various human groups and to estimate the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to that profile. The rhythm profiles were constructed by comparing the acrophases of 11 plasma hormones in women from three different ethnic-geographic populations (North Americans, Romanians, and Japanese) with reference to three age groups (adolescence-early postpuberty, young adulthood, and postmenopause). Genetic distances of these ethnic groups were determined by 14 genetic markers. Cluster and principal coordinates analyses were used to define the variation of the two parameters (genetic distances and acrophase dispersion). The analyses show that North Americans and Romanians are closer to each other with regard to both parameters and far apart from the Japanese. However, there was a difference between the variation presented by the first eigenvalue of the genetic profiles (94.5%) and that of the first eigenvalue of the acrophase pattern (69.1%), which means reduction in the variability (increased similarity) among the three ethnic groups according to the acrophase profiles.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Genetic affinities of Ethiopian Jews.

Three different types of genetic polymorphisms studied in Ethiopian Jews are reviewed and used in genetic distance analyses between them and several relevant populations. In classical markers Ethiopian Jews cluster with other Ethiopian tribes and occupy a central position on a principal component map between African and Asian populations. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA types and 5' beta-globin haplotypes portrays Ethiopian Jews in the same manner, and locates them between African and Caucasoid populations. Their genetic profile as mirrored through these genetic markers correlates with their geographic origin and reflects both Caucasoid and Negroid components in their gene pool.