Mitochondrial DNA Affinity of Several Jewish Communities

The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of 332 individuals from Israel, including 270 Jews (originating from 7 communities) and 62 Arabs, was analyzed. Each mtDNA haplotype was determined by the fragment patterns of restriction enzymes Hpa', BamHl, Hael I, Mspl (Hpall), and Avail. The variability of the total sample and of each community was high. Of 40 different haplotypes, 20 were found more than once. Most haplotypes are typical of Caucasians, but African types were found among Ethiopian Jews and to a lesser extent among Arabs. The communities differed in their haplotypes: Chi-square tests among six communities showed significant differences for most pairwise comparisons and nonsignificant differences involving mainly the Moroccan Jews. In a genetic distance analysis only the Ethiopian Jews appeared to be distinguished from the other communities. According to a GST analysis, approximately 30% of the variation among the mtDNA restriction maps is attributable to differences between communities. Large phenotypic differences exist between members of different Jewish communities, although all communities are believed to have been derived from the Hebrew nation that had lived in the Land of Israel until about 2000 years ago. The relative contributions of selection, genetic drift, and admixture with neighboring communities of non-Jews to these differences, based on studies of a variety of genetic markers, are still a matter of debate (Mourant et al. 1978; Szeinberg 1979; Bonne-Tamir et al. 1979; Karlin et al. 1979; Carmelli and Cavalli-Sforza 1979; Kobyliansky et al. 1982; Morton et al. 1982; Wijsman 1984; Patai and Patai 'Department of Genetics, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904 Jerusalem, Israel. 2 Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. ^Department of Human Genetics, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Ramat Aviv, Israel. Human Biology, June 1993, v. 65, no. 3, pp. 359-385. Copyright © 1993 Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48202