Sunday, June 10, 2012

Kurdish Y chromosomes of a Central Anatolian village

Today, I want to focus on Omer Gokcumen's publication that I presented earlier.  He analyzed the Y-STR values of 4 Central Anatolian villages that are in close proximity to each other, however, they are dominated by different ethnic groups. For some reasons (that I don't want to discuss) he used pseudonyms for the 4 villages, so please do not try to find the locations on a map. One of 4 villages is described as Kurdish, Gokcumen called this villages 'Dogukoy' in his publication.
Based on the figure 6 of the publication (see below), the following Y-STR haplogroups were observed in the Kurdish village of 'Dokukoy': E3b, I1b1, I1b2, J1, J2a, R1a, and R1b in a total of 31 tested individuals from 'Dokukoy'. E1b and J2a are dominating in the Kurdish village, while R1b, R1a, I1b1, I1b2, and J1 are present but relatively low.



A closer look at the Y-STR values of 31 tested individuals from 'Dokukoy' (can be found in the supplementary information) reveals that a lot of cases of J2a are identical or have a very narrow star-like occurence, so maybe Gokcumen et al. just tested a lot of relatives (one clan). A even more extreme pattern can be seen in the data set of the village 'Gocmenkoy' (Residents of 'Gocmenkoy' identify themselves with the Afsar clan of the Oguz tribe). Thus, I will not use any of the calculated Y-haplogroup frequencies of this publication, they are misleading. Pictures are sometimes better than 1000 words:



Green, red, blue, and yellow indicate the 'Gocmenkoy', 'Dogukoy', 'Eskikoy', and 'Merkez' settlements, respectively. 

What can be used from the publication are the variation of observed Y-STR values of the Kurds of 'Dogukoy'.

I will compare these observed Y-STR haplotypes with published data and databases, maybe these 'Kurdish haplotypes' are present in other populations as well. As a starter, just the Modal haplotype for haplogroup J2a in Kurds from 'Dogukoy' (includes samples D05, D13, D16, and D26):


DYS 393 DYS 390 DYS 19 DYS 391 DYS 385a DYS 385b DYS 439 DYS 389I DYS 392 DYS 389II DYS 458 DYS 437 DYS 448 DYS 456 DYS 438 H4 GATA DYS 635
12 22 14 11 13 15 12 12 11 29 16 15 19 15 9 21 22


Update:
Some good matches for Modal haplotype for haplogroup J2a in Kurds from 'Dogukoy' at ysearch:

(distance 4/16=25%): BDVZY(Eash from Stiffansburg/Oberlangenegg, Switzerland) J2 (tested)
(distance 5/16=31%): NSUYM (Milan from Italy?) J2 (tested)
(distance 5/16=31%): EU9WG (Rachkovsky from Lithuania) J2a (tested)

After searching through ysearch and some scientific articles I came to the conclusion that the Modal haplotype for haplogroup J2a in Kurds from 'Dogukoy' is J2a4 and mostly likely J2a4b (M67(xM92) = old J2f).  The majority of  Kurds from Dogukoy (16 out 31 = 52%) belong to this Central Anatolian"Kurdish" J2a4b cluster.



Indeed, J2a4b is a very interesting haplogroup. It is found in high frequencies in North-Eastern Caucasian people, primarily Nakh language speakers.

As a consequence I took a closer look at STR values from Caucasus people, presented in Balanovsky et al., 2011.

First the Phylogenitic STR-network of the Caucasus based on Balanovsky et al., 2011.





The closest matches for the Modal haplotype for haplogroup J2a in Kurds from 'Dogukoy' are within cluster α or close by the founder haplotype of cluster α, mostly Nakh people (Ingush, Chechen).

(distance 5/17=29%): Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1341    outside clusters
(distance 5/17=29%): Dargins    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    DAG-299    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Chechen (Chechnya)    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    Chech-1021    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1354    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1358    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1353    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1359    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1365    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1421    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1321    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1330    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1366    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1434    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1405    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1413    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Chechen (Dagestan)    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    DAG06-495    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Chechen (Ingushetia)    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    Chech-1263    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ossets-Iron    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    OSE-487    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1325    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1420    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    Chech-1246    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    Chech-1185    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    Chech-1240    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    Chech-1242    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    Chech-1244    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1011    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1319    α
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    ING-1392    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Avar    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    DAG-529    outside clusters
(distance 6/17=35%):  Ingush    J2a4b*    M67(xM92)    Chech-1221    outside clusters


Balanovsky et al., 2011 wrote:
Although occupying a boundary position between Europe and the Near East, all four major Caucasus haplogroups show signs of a Near Eastern rather than European origin (fig. 2, supplementary fig. 1, Supplementary Material online). These four haplogroups reach their maximum (worldwide) frequencies in the Caucasus (table 2, fig. 2). They are either shared with Near East populations (G2a3b1-P303 and J2a4b*-M67(xM92)) or have ancestral lineages present there (G2a1*-P16(xP18) and J1*- M267(xP58)). Typical European haplogroups are very rare (I2a-P37.2) or limited to specific populations (R1a1a-M198) in the Caucasus. This pattern suggests unidirectional gene flow from the Near East toward the Caucasus, which could have occurred during the initial Paleolithic settlement or the subsequent Neolithic spread of farming. Archaeological data do not indicate a Near Eastern influence on the Neolithic cultures in the North Caucasus (Bader and Tsereteli 1989; Bzhania 1996; Masson et al. 1982), whereas Neolithization in the Transcaucasus was part of a Neolithic expansion that per- haps paralleled those occurring in Europe (Balaresque et al. 2010) and North Africa (Arredi et al. 2004). However, the current genetic evidence does not allow us to distinguish between Paleolithic and Neolithic models in shaping the genetic landscape of the North Caucasus.

Wikipedia states that:
Many scholars, such as Johanna Nichols[30] and Bernice Wuethrich [1] hold that the Dzurdzuks [ancient Nakh people living in Durdzukia] were descended from extremely ancient migrations from the Fertile Crescent to the Caucasus, perhaps due to population or political pressures back in the Fertile Crescent. Others who believe the so-called "Urartian version", such as George Anchabadze and Amjad Jaimoukha, still hold that those original migrants contributed to both the genetic and cultural traits of the modern Ingush and Chechens, but that the primary ancestors were Nakh-speaking migrants from what became Northeastern Urartu.


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