Genetic affinities of the Jewish populations of India

Due to the lack of written records or inscription, the origin and affiliation of Indian Jewish populations with other world populations remain contentious. Previous genetic studies have found evidence for a minor shared ancestry of Indian Jewish with Middle Eastern (Jewish) populations. However, the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-01, Vol.6 (1), p.19166-19166, Article 19166
Main Authors: Chaubey, Gyaneshwer, Singh, Manvendra, Rai, Niraj, Kariappa, Mini, Singh, Kamayani, Singh, Ashish, Pratap Singh, Deepankar, Tamang, Rakesh, Selvi Rani, Deepa, Reddy, Alla G., Kumar Singh, Vijay, Singh, Lalji, Thangaraj, Kumarasamy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
38
38/61
45/22
45/23
45/77
631/114/739
631/181/735
631/208
Chromosomes, Human, Y
Diaspora
DNA, Mitochondrial - genetics
Ethnic Groups - genetics
Genetic diversity
Genetic Markers
Genetics, Population
Genomes
Genotype
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
India
Jewish life & ethics
Jews - genetics
Migration
Mitochondrial DNA
multidisciplinary
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
Population genetics
Population studies
Principal Component Analysis
Principal components analysis
Science
World population
Y chromosomes
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Due to the lack of written records or inscription, the origin and affiliation of Indian Jewish populations with other world populations remain contentious. Previous genetic studies have found evidence for a minor shared ancestry of Indian Jewish with Middle Eastern (Jewish) populations. However, these studies (relied on limited individuals), haven’t explored the detailed temporal and spatial admixture process of Indian Jewish populations with the local Indian populations. Here, using large sample size with combination of high resolution biparental (autosomal) and uniparental markers (Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA), we reconstructed genetic history of Indian Jewish by investigating the patterns of genetic diversity. Consistent with the previous observations, we detected minor Middle Eastern specific ancestry component among Indian Jewish communities, but virtually negligible in their local neighbouring Indian populations. The temporal test of admixture suggested that the first admixture of migrant Jewish populations from Middle East to South India (Cochin) occurred during fifth century. Overall, we concluded that the Jewish migration and admixture in India left a record in their genomes, which can link them to the ‘Jewish Diaspora’.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep19166