Twenty Nuclear DNA Polymorphisms in a Moroccan Population: A Comparison with Seven Other Human Populations

Abstract

A south central Moroccan sample was analyzed for 20 nuclear DNA polymorphisms (restriction fragment length polymorphisms). The population was chosen on the basis of available information on its history, making it suitable for comparisons with data from other European populations. The markers analyzed have been studied previously in several human groups from different continents, and data on African and European samples have been compared to evaluate the genetic affinity of the studied sample with other populations, especially with two Spanish groups: Basques and Andalusians. Heterozygosity levels showed intermediate values between the African and European groups and higher than those found so far in an African group for the studied markers. Genetic distances closely matched geographical relationships through neighbor-joining tree and correspondence analysis, the Moroccans being closer to the European groups than the sub-Saharan Africans included in the analysis. Allele distributions revealed specific population associations with large weight of several alleles in the differentiation of some groups. Gene flow from sub-Saharan Africa appears to be relevant in understanding the differentiation of present Moroccan populations.

A Comprehensive Analysis of 3 Moroccan Genomes Revealed Contributions From Both African and European Ancestries

“…Due to these various regional influences, the genetic makeup of the Moroccan population is a complex mixture of ancestral Maghrebi lineages, along with northeast and West African, European, and West Asians to different degrees. 5 , 6 However, to date, there is a lack of publications describing the genetic variability of Moroccan individuals. The main objectives of the present study are the analysis of 3 Moroccan genomes, the identification of novel variants, the allocation of mitochondrial DNA haplogroups to each genome, and the structure analysis of the studied genomes.…”