From Arabia to Iberia: A Y chromosome prospective
- a Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, College of Medicine, FL International University, Miami FL33199, USA
- b Biology Department, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO 80903, USA
- c Laboratoire de Genetique, Immunologie at Pathologies Humaines, Faculte des Sciences de Tunis,Campus Universitaire El Manar II, Universite el Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
Received 5 January 2015, Revised 8 February 2015, Accepted 15 February 2015, Available online 17 February 2015
Highlights
•The M81 and M183 mutations in Spain represent signatures of Berber gene flow.
•The P58 mutation and its derivatives represent genetic signals from Arabian.
•Our data are compatible with multiple migrations from Northwest Africa including the Islamic occupation.
•Frequencies of both Arabic and Berber markers are higher at the extreme Northwest of Iberian compared to the South of Spain.
•Relocation of converts and/or pre-Islamic dispersals to North Iberia may explain the higher frequencies compared to South Iberia.
Abstract
At different times during recent human evolution, northern Africa has served as a conduit for migrations from the Arabian Peninsula. Although previous researchers have investigated the possibility of the Strait of Gibraltar as a conduit of migration from North Africa to Iberia, we now revisit this issue and theorize that although the Strait of Gibraltar, at the west end of this corridor, has acted as a barrier for human dispersal into Southwest Europe, it has not provided an absolute seal to gene flow. To test this hypothesis, here we use the spatial frequency distributions, STR diversity and expansion time estimates of Y chromosome haplogroups J1-P58 and E-M81 to investigate the genetic imprints left by the Arabian and Berber expansions into the Iberian Peninsula, respectively. The data generated indicate that Arabian and Berber genetic markers are detected in Iberia. We present evidence that suggest that Iberia has received gene flow from Northwest Africa during and prior to the Islamic colonization of 711 A.D. It is interesting that the highest frequencies of Arabia and Berber markers are not found in southern Spain, where Islam remained the longest and was culturally most influential, but in Northwest Iberia, specifically Galicia. We propose that Moriscos’ relocations to the north during the
Reconquista, the migration of cryptic Muslims seeking refuge in a more lenient society and/or more geographic extensive pre-Islamic incursions may explain the higher frequencies and older time estimates of mutations in the north of the Peninsula. These scenarios are congruent with the higher diversities of some diagnostic makers observed in Northwest Iberia.