Explanation of the Pattern of P49a,f TaqI RFLP Y-Chromosome Variation in
Egypt

S. O. Y. Keita1 Contact Information
(1) National Human Genome Center, Howard University Cancer Center# 615,
Howard University Hospital, 2041 Georgia Avenue NW., 20060 District of
Columbia, Washington

Abstract The possible factors involved in the generation of the p49a,f TaqI
Y-chromosome spatial diversity in Egypt are explored. The object is to
consider explanations beyond those that emphasize gene flow mediated via
military campaigns within the Nile corridor during the dynastic period.
Current patterns of the most common variants (V, XI, IV) have been suggested
to relate to Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom political actions in Nubia,
including sometimes settler colonization, and the conquest of Egypt by
Napata (in upper Nubia, northern Sudan) that initiated Dynasty XXV. Other
events or processes have not been presented. However, a synthesis of
evidence from archaeology, historical linguistics, texts, the distribution
of haplotypes outside of Egypt, and some demographic considerations, lends
greater support to the establishment, before the Middle Kingdom, of the
observed distributions of the most prevalent haplotypes: V, XI, and IV. It
is suggested that the pattern of diversity for these variants in the
Egyptian Nile Valley, was largely the product of population events that
occurred in the late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene through Dynasty I, and was
sustained by continuous smaller scale bi-directional
migrations/interactions. The higher frequency of V in Ethiopia than in Nubia
or upper (southern) Egypt, has to be taken into account in any discussion of
variation in the Nile Valley, especially in the context of the findings of
historical linguistics.

Key words Egypt - predynastic - neolithic - Y-chromosome - p49a,f TaqI -
Afroasiatic - Nilosaharan - Sahara - Nubia

Contact Information S. O. Y. Keita
Email: shomarka_omir_y_keita@yahoo.com
References
Adams, B. (1996). Elite graves at Hierakonpolis. In Spencer, J. (ed.),
Aspects of Early Egypt, British Museum Press, London, pp. 1–15.

Al-Zahery, N., Semino, O., Benuzzi, G., Magri, C., Passarino G., Torroni A.,
and Santachiara-Benerecetti, A. S. (2003). Y chromosome and mtDNA
polymorphisms in Iraq, a crossroad of the early human dispersal and of
post-Neolithic migrations. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 28(3):
458–472.
ChemPortPubMed

Angel, J. L. (1972). Biological relationships of Egyptian and eastern
Mediterranean populations during the pre-dynastic and dynastic times.
Journal of Human Evolution 1: 307–313.

Bard, K. (1994). From Farmers to Pharaohs. Mortuary Evidence for the Rise of
Complex Society, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

Bar-Yosef, O. (1987). Pleistocene connexions between African and southwest
Asia. African Archaeological Review 5: 29–30.

Bender, L. (1975). Omotic: A New Afro-Asiatic Language Family. Carbondale,
University Museum, Southern Illinois University.

Blench, R. (1993). Recent developments in African language classifications
and their implicationsfor prehistory. In Shaw, T., Sinclair, P., Andah, B.,
and Okpoko, A. (eds.), The Archaeology of Archaeology: Food, Metal and
Towns. Routledge, New York, pp. 126–137.

Bosch, E. Calafell, F. Comas, D. Oefner, P. Underhill, P. A., and
Bertranpetit, J. (2001). High-resolutionanalysis of human Y-chromosome
variation shows a sharp discontinuity and limited gene flowbetween
northwestern Africa and the Iberian peninsula. American Journal of Human
Genetics 68:1019–1029.
ChemPortPubMed

Butzer, K. W. (1976). Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt, University of
Chicago, Chicago.

Braudel, F. (1982). On History (translated by Sarah Matthews), University of
Chicago, Chicago.

Cruciani, F., Santoamazza, P., Shen, P., Macaulay, V., Moral, P., Olckers,
A., Modiano, D., Holmes, S., Destro-Bisol, G., Coia, V., Wallace, D.,
Oefner, P., Torroni, A., Cavalli-Sfrorza, L., Scozzari, R., and Underhill P.
(2002). A back migration from Asia to sub-Saharan Africa is supported by
high- resolution analysis of human y-chromosome haplotypes. American Journal
of Human Genetics 70: 1197–1214.
ChemPortPubMed

Cruciani, F. La Fratta, R. Santolamazza, P. Selitto, D., Pascone, R., et al.
(2004). Phylogeographic analysis of haplogroup E3b (E-215) Y chromosomes
reveals multiple migratory events within and out of Africa. American Journal
of Human Genetics 74: 1014–1022.
ChemPortPubMed

Diakonoff, I. M. (1981). Earliest Semites in Asia, Altorientalische,
Forschungeon.

Diakonoff, I. M. (1998). The Earliest Semitic society. Linguistic data.
Journal of Semitic Studies 4 (3): 209–19.

Ehret, C. (1984). Historical/linguistic evidence for early African food
production. In Clark, J. D., and Brandt, S. (eds.), From Hunters to Farmers,
University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 26–36.

Ehret, C. (1988). Language change and the correlates of language and ethnic
shift. Antiquity 62: 564–574.

Ehret, C. (1993). Nilosaharans and the Saharo-Sudanese Neolithic. In Shaw,
T., Sinclair, P., Andah, B., and Okpoko, A. (eds.), The Archaeology of
Africa: Food, Metal, and Towns, Routledge, London, pp. 104–125.

Ehret, C. (1995). Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): Vowels,
Tone, Consonantsand Vocabulary, University of California Press, Berkeley, p.
126.

Ehret, C. (2000). Language and history. In Heine, B., and Nurse, D. (eds.),
African Languages, An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
pp. 272–297.

Emery, W. B. (1961). Archaic Egypt, Penguin, London.

Fix, A. (1999). Migration and Colonization in Human Microevolution,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Fleming, H. (1974). Omotic as an Afroasiatic family. Studies in African
Linguistics, Supplement 5: 81–94.

Gardiner, A. (1961). Egypt of the Pharaohs, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Greenberg, J. (1966). The Languages of Africa, Indiana University Press,
Bloomington.

Greenberg, J. H. (1973). African languages. In Skinner, E. P. (ed.), Peoples
and Cultures of Africa, Doubleday, Garden City, NY, pp. 34–58.

Hammer, M., and Zegura, S. (2002). The human Y chromosome haplogroup tree:
Nomenclature and phylogeography of its major divisions. Annual Review of
Anthropology 31: 303–321.

Hammer, M. F., Redd, A. J., Wood, E. T., Bonner, M. R., Jarjanazi, H.,
Karafet, T., Santachiara-Benerecetti, S., Oppenheim, A., Jobling, M. A.,
Jenkins, T., Ostrer, H., and Bonne-Tamir, B. (2000). Jewish and Middle
Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic
haplotypes. Proceedings of National Academy of Science United States of
America 97: 6769–6774.
ChemPort

Hassan, F. (1988). The predynastic of Egypt. Journal of World Prehistory 2:
135–185.

Hoffman, M. (1982). The Predynastic of Hierakonpolis, and Interim Report.
Egyptian Studies Publication No 1. Giza and Macomb, Illinois: Cairo
University Herbarium and Western Illinois University.

Kobusiewicz, M. (1992). Neolithic and predynastic development in the
Egyptian Nile Valley. In Klees, F., and Kuper, R. (eds.), New Light on the
Northeast African Past, Heinrich-Barth Institut, Koln, pp. 207–218.

Krings, M., Salem, A. E., Bauer, K., Geisert, H., Malek, A. K., Chaix, L.,
Simon, C., Welsby, D., Di Rienzo, A., Utermann, G., Sajantila, A., Paabo,
S., and Stoneking, M. (1999). MtDNA analysis of Nile River Valley
populations: A genetic corridor or a barrier to migration? American Journal
of Human Genetics 64: 1166–1176.
ChemPortPubMed

Kroeper, K. (1996). Minshat Abu Omar-burials with palettes. In Spencer, J.
(ed.), Aspects of Early Egypt, British Museum Press, London, pp. 70–91.

Lucotte, G., and Loirat, F. (1999). Y-chromosome DNA haplotype 15 in Europe.
Human Biology 71: 431–437.
ChemPort

Lucotte, G., and Mercier, G. (2003a). Y-chromosome haplotypes in Egypt.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology 121: 63–66.
ChemPort

Lucotte, G., and Mercier, G. (2003b). Y chromosome DNA haplotypes in Jews:
Comparisons with Lebanese and Palestinians. Genetic Testing 7(1): 67–71.
ChemPort

Lucotte, G., and Smets, P. (1999). Origins of Falasha Jews studied by
haplotypes of Y chromosome. Human Biology 71(6): 989–993.
ChemPort

Lucotte, G., Sriniva, K. R., Loirat, F., Hazout, S., and Ruffie, J. (1990).
The p49/ Taq I Y-specific polymorphisms in three groups of Indians. Genetic
Geography 4: 21–28.
ChemPort

Lucotte, G., Smets, P., and Ruffie, J. (1993). Y-chromosome-specific
haplotype diversity in Ashkenazicand Sephardic Jews. Human Biology 65(5):
835–840.
ChemPort

Lucotte, G., David, F., and Berriche, S. (1996). Haplotype VIII of the Y
chromosome is the ancestral haplotype in Jews. Human Biology 68(2): 467–471.
ChemPort

Lucotte, G., Aouizerate, A., and Berriche, S. (2000). Y-chromosome DNA
haplotypes in North African populations. Human Biology 72(3): 473–480.
ChemPort

Lucotte, G., Gerard, N., and Mercier, G. (2001) North African genes in
Iberia studied by Y-chromosome DNA haplotype V. Human Immunology 62:
885–888.
ChemPortPubMed

Luis, J. R., Rowold, D. J., Regueiro, M., Caeiro, B., Cinnoglu, C., Roseman,
C., Underhill, P. A., Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., and Herrera, R. J. (2004). The
Levant versus the Horn of Africa: Evidence for bi-directional corridors of
human migrations. American Journal of Human Genetics 74 (3): 532–544.
ChemPortPubMed

Manni, F., Leonardi, P., Barakat, A., Rouba, H., Heyer, E., Klintshcar, J.,
McElreavey, K., and Quintana-Murci, L. (2002). Y chromosome analysis in
Egypt suggests a genetic regional continuity in northeastern Africa. Human
Biology 74(5): 645–658

Midant-Reynes, B. (2000). The Prehistory of Egypt, from the First Egyptians
to the First Pharaohs, Blackwell, Oxford.

Munro-Hay, S. (1991). Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity,
EdinburghUniversity, Edinburgh.

Nebel, A., Landau-Tasserot, E., Filon, D., Oppenheim, A., and Faerman,
M.(2002). Genetic evidence forthe expansion of Arabian tribes into the
southern Levant and North Africa. American Journal of Human Genetics 70:
1594–1596.
ChemPortPubMed

Needler, W. (1984). Predynastic and Archaic Egypt in the Brooklyn Museum,
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn.

Nichols, J. (1997). Modeling ancient population structures and movement in
linguistics. Annu Rev Anthropol 26: 359–384.

Passarino, G., Semino, O., Magri, C., Al-Zahery, N., Benuzzi, G.,
Quintana-Murci, L., Andellnovic, S., Bulle-Jakus, F., Liu, A., Arslan, A.,
and Santachiara-Benerecetti, A. S. (2001). The 49a,f haplotype 11 is a new
marker of the EU19 lineage that traces migrations from northern regions of
the Black Sea. Human Immunology 62(9): 922–932.
ChemPortPubMed

Ruhlen, M. (1987). A guide to the World’s Languages, Vol. 1. Classification,
Stanford University Press, Stanford.

Sanchez, J. J., Borsting, C. Hallenberg, C. Hernandez, A. Morling, N.
(2003). Y chromosome analysis of the Somali population suggests the origin
of haplogroup E3b1. Poster presentation at Second Interntational Symposium:
DNA Polymorphisms in Human Populations. December 5–6. Musee de l’Homme.
Paris.

Santichiara-Benerecetti, A. S., Semino, O., Passarino, G., Torroni, A.,
Brdicka, R., Fellous, M., Modiano, G. (1993). The common, Near Eastern
origin of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews supported by Y-chromosome similarity.
Annals of Human Genetics 57: 55–64.
PubMed

Semino, O., Santachiara-Benerecetti, A. S., Falaschi, F., Cavalli-Sforza, L.
L., and Underhill, P. (2002). Ethiopians and Khoisan share the deepest
clades of the human Y-chromosome phylogeny. American Journal of Human
Genetics 70: 265–268.
ChemPortPubMed

Semino, O., Magri, C., Benuzzi, G., Lin, A., Al-Zahery, N., Battaglia, V.,
Maccioni, L., Triantaphyllidis, C., Shen, P., Oefner, P. J., Zhivotovsky, L.
A., King, R., Torroni, A., Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., Underhill, P. A., and
Santachiara-Benerecetti, A. S. (2004). Origin, diffusion, and
differentiation of Y-chromosome haplogroups E and J: Inferences on the
neolithitization of Europe and later migratory events in the Mediterranean
area. American Journal Human Genetics 74(5): 1023–1034.
ChemPort

Trigger, B. (1976). Nubia, Under the Pharaohs, Westview Press, Boulder.

Underhill, P. A., Passarino, G., Lin, A. A., Shen P., Lahr, M. M., Foley, R.
A., Oefner P. J., and Cavalli-Sforza L. L. (2001). The phylogeography of Y
chromosome binary haplotypes and the origins of modern human populations.
Annals of Human Genetics 65: 43-62.
ChemPortPubMed

Wendorf, F., and Schild, R. (1980). Prehistory of the Eastern Sahara,
Academic Press. New York.

Wendorf, F., and Schild, R., and Associates (2001). Holocene Settlement of
the Egyptian Sahara, Vol I. The Archaeology of Nabta Playa, Plenum, New
York.

Wetterstrom, W. (1993). Foraging and farming in Egypt: The transition from
hunting and gatheringto horticulture in the Nile Valley. In Shaw, T.,
Sinclair, P., Andah, B., and Okapoko, A. (eds.), The Archaeology of Africa:
Food, Metal and Towns, Routlege, New York, pp. 165–226.

Wilkinson, T. A. H. (1999). Early Dynastic Egypt, Routledge, London.

Williams, B. B. (1986). Excavations Between Abu Simbel and the Sudan
Frontier. The A-Group Royal Cemetery at Qustul: Cemetery L, Oriental
Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago.

quote:

---

Originally posted by ausar:

Do you have the full text on this abstract?

---

Could you possibly email it to me. My email is on the top of the screen under moderator.

quote:

---

Originally posted by ausar:

Could you possibly email it to me. My email is on the top of the screen under moderator.

---

I only have the document in hard copy. I will provide quotes if you like?

I tried contacting with Dr. Keita but apparently that email does not exist. I got Mail Deliverly error. Do you know Dr. Keita's email because I would like to tell him a few things about modern Egypt that geneticists often ignore.

Could you also summerize the study for me? Where do the samples come from in Egypt,and who exactly is tested? Is Keita aware of the earlier Dna test on remains in Naqada that were found to match sub-Saharans?

quote:

---

Originally posted by ausar:

I tried contacting with Dr. Keita but apparently that email does not exist. I got Mail Deliverly error. Do you know Dr. Keita's email because I would like to tell him a few things about modern Egypt that geneticists often ignore.

Could you also summerize the study for me? Where do the samples come from in Egypt,and who exactly is tested? Is Keita aware of the earlier Dna test on remains in Naqada that were found to match sub-Saharans?

---

Thought Writes:

1) I don't have Keita's email.

2) I will review the paper and quote for the group.

3) Keita did not sample himself. The studies referenced are his sources.

The email supplied on the bottom of the abstract is the one I am talking about. I sent a reply but it bounced back.

Keita should put his email out because many people want to ask him questions.