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. 2024 Jul 26;10(16):e35329.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e35329. eCollection 2024 Aug 30.

Y-chromosome analysis recapitulates key events of Mediterranean populations

B Navarro-López  1   2 , M Baeta  1   2 , O Moreno-López  1 , T Kleinbielen  1 , C Raffone  1   2 , E Granizo-Rodríguez  1 , J F Ferragut  3 , O Alvarez-Gila  4 , A Barbaro  5 , A Picornell  3 , M M de Pancorbo E  1   2
Affiliations

Y-chromosome analysis recapitulates key events of Mediterranean populations

B Navarro-López et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

The remarkable geographical situation of the Mediterranean region, located between Europe, Africa, and Asia, with numerous migratory routes, has made this area a crucible of cultures. Studying the Y-chromosome variability is a very performant tool to explore the genetic ancestry and evaluate scenarios that may explain the current Mediterranean gene pool. Here, six Mediterranean populations, including three Balearic Islands (Ibiza, Majorca, and Minorca) and three Southern Italian regions (Catanzaro, Cosenza, and Reggio di Calabria) were typed using 23 Y-STR loci and up to 39 Y-SNPs and compared to geographically targeted key reference populations to explore their genetic relationship and provide an overview of Y-chromosome variation across the Mediterranean basin. Pairwise RST genetic distances calculated with STRs markers and Y-haplogroups mirror the West to East geographic distribution of European and Asian Mediterranean populations, highlighting the North-South division of Italy, with a higher Eastern Mediterranean component in Southern Italian populations. In contrast, the African populations from the Southern coast of the Mediterranean clustered separately. Overall, these results support the notion that migrations from Magna Graecia or the Byzantine Empire, which followed similar Neolithic and post-Neolithic routes into Southern Italy, may have contributed to maintaining and/or reinforcing the Eastern Mediterranean genetic component in Southern Italian populations.

Keywords: Balearic islands; Mediterranean; Southern Italian populations; Y-STRs; Y-chromosome; Y-haplogroups.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Marian M de Pancorbo reports financial support was provided by Basque Government. Marian M de Pancorbo reports a relationship with Basque Government that includes: funding grants. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Populations under study, including the Balearic Islands of Ibiza, Majorca, and Minorca, and the Southern Italian regions of Catanzaro, Cosenza, and Reggio di Calabria.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
MDS plot based on RST distances considering the Crown of Aragon. Spanish populations are represented by an inverted triangle, while an asterisk represents Italian populations.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
MDS plot based on RST distances considering Mediterranean populations and 17 loci (a) or 23 loci (b). Spanish populations are represented by an inverted triangle, French populations by an X, Italian populations by a star, Greek populations by a diamond, Lebanese populations by a circle, Cyprus by a filled square, Turkish by a filled triangle, Egyptian by a dash, Libyan by a plus, Algerian by a bar and Tunisian by a square.
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