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Close Genetic Relationship Between Semitic‐speaking and Indo‐European‐speaking Groups in Iran
Author(s) -
Nasidze I.,
Quinque D.,
Rahmani M.,
Alemohamad S. A.,
Stoneking M.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
annals of human genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.537
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1469-1809
pISSN - 0003-4800
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-1809.2007.00413.x
Subject(s) - semitic languages , linguistics , genetic relationship , biology , genetic distance , mitochondrial dna , genetics , evolutionary biology , arabic , genetic variation , demography , gene , population , sociology , genetic diversity , philosophy
Summary As part of a continuing investigation of the extent to which the genetic and linguistic relationships of populations are correlated, we analyzed mtDNA HV1 sequences, eleven Y chromosome bi‐allelic markers, and 9 Y‐STR loci in two neighboring groups from the southwest of Iran who speak languages belonging to different families: Indo‐European‐speaking Bakhtiari, and Semitic‐speaking Arabs. Both mtDNA and the Y chromosome, showed a close relatedness of these groups with each other and with neighboring geographic groups, irrespective of the language spoken. Moreover, Semitic‐speaking North African groups are more distant genetically from Semitic‐speaking groups from the Near East and Iran. Thus, geographical proximity better explains genetic relatedness between populations than does linguistic relatedness in this part of the world.