Y-chromosome diversity characterizes the Gulf of Oman

Department of Genetics, Stanford University,Stanford, CA, USAArabia has served as a strategic crossroads for human disseminations, providing a natural connectionbetween the distant populations of China and India in the east to the western civilizations along theMediterranean. To explore this region’s critical role in the migratory episodes leaving Africa to Eurasia andback, high-resolution Y-chromosome analysis of males from the United Arab Emirates (164), Qatar (72)and Yemen (62) was performed. The role of the Levant in the Neolithic dispersal of the E3b1-M35sublineages is supported by the data, and the distribution and STR-based analyses of J1-M267representatives points to their spread from the north, most likely during the Neolithic. With the exceptionof Yemen, southern Arabia, South Iran and South Pakistan display high diversity in their Y-haplogroupsubstructure possibly a result of gene flow along the coastal crescent-shaped corridor of the Gulf of Omanfacilitating human dispersals. Elevated rates of consanguinity may have had an impact in Yemen andQatar, which experience significant heterozygote deficiencies at various hypervariable autosomal STR loci.European Journal of Human Genetics advance online publication, 10 October 2007; doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201934Keywords: Arabia; Y-chromosome; SNP; Y-STRIntroduction