Behar Doron M, Thomas Mark G, Skorecki Karl, Hammer Michael F, Bulygina Ekaterina, Rosengarten Dror, Jones Abigail L, Held Karen, Moses Vivian, Goldstein David, Bradman Neil, Weale Michael E
Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute, Technion and Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.
Am J Hum Genet. 2003 Oct;73(4):768-79. doi: 10.1086/378506. Epub 2003 Sep 17.
Previous Y chromosome studies have shown that the Cohanim, a paternally inherited Jewish priestly caste, predominantly share a recent common ancestry irrespective of the geographically defined post-Diaspora community to which they belong, a finding consistent with common Jewish origins in the Near East. In contrast, the Levites, another paternally inherited Jewish caste, display evidence for multiple recent origins, with Ashkenazi Levites having a high frequency of a distinctive, non-Near Eastern haplogroup. Here, we show that the Ashkenazi Levite microsatellite haplotypes within this haplogroup are extremely tightly clustered, with an inferred common ancestor within the past 2,000 years. Comparisons with other Jewish and non-Jewish groups suggest that a founding event, probably involving one or very few European men occurring at a time close to the initial formation and settlement of the Ashkenazi community, is the most likely explanation for the presence of this distinctive haplogroup found today in >50% of Ashkenazi Levites.
以往对Y染色体的研究表明，科罕姆人（Cohanim，一个父系遗传的犹太祭司阶层），无论他们属于地理上定义的散居后哪个社区，主要都有一个近期的共同祖先，这一发现与犹太人起源于近东地区相一致。相比之下，利未人（Levites，另一个父系遗传的犹太阶层）则显示出有多个近期起源的证据，德系犹太人利未人有高频率的一种独特的、非近东单倍群。在此，我们表明，在这个单倍群内的德系犹太人利未人微卫星单倍型极其紧密地聚集在一起，在过去2000年内有一个推断的共同祖先。与其他犹太和非犹太群体的比较表明，一个奠基事件，可能涉及在德系犹太人社区最初形成和定居时出现的一个或极少数欧洲男性，是当今在超过50%的德系犹太人利未人中发现这种独特单倍群的最可能解释。
