North African Jewish and non-Jewish populations form distinctive, orthogonal clusters

Abstract

North African Jews constitute the second largest Jewish Diaspora group. However, their relatedness to each other; to European, Middle Eastern, and other Jewish Diaspora groups; and to their former North African non-Jewish neighbors has not been well defined. Here, genome-wide analysis of five North African Jewish groups (Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Djerban, and Libyan) and comparison with other Jewish and non-Jewish groups demonstrated distinctive North African Jewish population clusters with proximity to other Jewish populations and variable degrees of Middle Eastern, European, and North African admixture. Two major subgroups were identified by principal component, neighbor joining tree, and identity-by-descent analysis—Moroccan/Algerian and Djerban/Libyan—that varied in their degree of European admixture. These populations showed a high degree of endogamy and were part of a larger Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish group. By principal component analysis, these North African groups were orthogonal to contemporary populations from North and South Morocco, Western Sahara, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. Thus, this study is compatible with the history of North African Jews—founding during Classical Antiquity with proselytism of local populations, followed by genetic isolation with the rise of Christianity and then Islam, and admixture following the emigration of Sephardic Jews during the Inquisition.

Gene flow from North Africa contributes to differential human genetic diversity in southern Europe

“…European ancestry is also detected in North African populations. At k = 6 it ranges between 4% and 16% in the rest of North Africa, with notable intrapopulation variation (35) and is absent in most Maghrebi (western North African) individuals from Tunisia and Western Sahara.…”

“…We note that in the ADMIXTURE analysis at k = 3, there is shared ancestry between Europeans and Jewish populations; however, this could represent either shared ancestral variation or gene flow. Levels of k > 3 showed very little recent Jewish ancestry in European populations and North African populations show negligible ancestry from North African Jews (35). The removal of Jewish populations from the dataset increased the number of common markers from 243,000 to 274,000 and to a total of 41 populations.…”

Echoes from Sepharad: signatures on the maternal gene pool of crypto-Jewish descendants

“…[18][19][20][21][22][23] However, only a few reports have been published on Sephardic and crypto-Jewish descendants. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Recent analysis of paternal lineages in Iberia points to a high proportion of Jewish ancestry.…”

No Evidence from Genome-Wide Data of a Khazar Origin for the Ashkenazi Jews

“…First, it is possible to assess whether an individual has Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, not only for subjects who identify as having exclusively Ashkenazi Jewish ancestors in recent generations, but also, in many cases, for subjects who report only one or two Ashkenazi Jewish grandparents (Bauchet and others, 2007;Guha and others, 2012;Need and others, 2009;Price and others, 2008;Seldin and others, 2006;Tian and others, 2008). Second, Ashkenazi Jewish individuals have relatively long stretches of the genome shared with each other, both in comparison with their genomic sharing with individuals from other populations, and in comparison with levels of within-population genomic sharing in these other populations (Atzmon and others, 2010;Campbell and others, 2012;Guha and others, 2012;Henn and others, 2012). Third, relatively little observable genetic difference exists between representatives of eastern and western Ashkenazi Jewish populations, suggesting that genetically, the Ashkenazi Jewish population approximates a single large community (Guha and others, 2012).…”

“…Third, relatively little observable genetic difference exists between representatives of eastern and western Ashkenazi Jewish populations, suggesting that genetically, the Ashkenazi Jewish population approximates a single large community (Guha and others, 2012). Fourth, considering the Ashkenazi Jewish population in relation to other populations, Ashkenazi Jews show the greatest genetic similarity to Sephardi Jews, and, to a lesser extent, to North African Jews (Atzmon and others, 2010;Behar and others, 2010;Campbell and others, 2012;Kopelman and others, 2009). …”