The Neolithic yDNA Haplogroup J-P58 has been a topic of research interest since its discovery over 15 years ago (Hammer & Behar, et al, 2009[1]; Chiaroni, et al, 2010[2]; Sahakyn, et al, 2021[3]). Amplified by a little understood population bottleneck that occurred between 10,000 and 7,500 BCE, J-P58 is ancestral to numerous yDNA branches found in current world populations and Bronze Age gravesites throughout the Middle East.
The Avotaynu DNA Project is pleased to announce that one of its freshly analyzed study samples from a man in the Romaniote Jewish community of Greece represents the yDNA equivalent of a living fossil, a previously undiscovered yDNA branch tentatively described as J-Z1874* that separated from the direct ancestor of J-P58 over 11,000 years ago (~9000 BCE) during the Neolithic era. According to the dating[4] provided by FamilyTreeDNA, the mean dating is 11,023 years before present (YBP) with a range of 9,659 – 12,570 YBP (95% CI). No other sample from this new branch has ever been reported.
The new sample parallels the 67 Jewish branches from the J-P58 genetic family discovered thus far by the Avotaynu study, each of which separately date back to the Bronze Age or earlier. These results, confirmed by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology, demonstrate that the Jewish people like the Druze are a “genetic refugium of the Near East” that dates back thousands of years (Shlush, Behar, et al, 2008[5]). A paper is forthcoming detailing the Avotaynu Project’s numerous discoveries connecting the modern Jewish population to its remarkably diverse ancient origins.
J-P58 is particularly well-known in the Jewish world as it is ancestral to the celebrated “Cohen Modal Haplotype” discovered by Dr. Karl Skorecki and published in the seminal article, “Y chromosomes of Jewish priests” (Skorecki, et al, 1997[6]). As part of the overall Avotaynu study, a new worldwide NGS survey of men with reported Cohen ancestry has been conducted and a separate publication is forthcoming.
An independent J-P58 study in which the Avotaynu Project played a supporting role was the groundbreaking research that utilized then-new NGS to uncover the complex inheritance of the Bronze Age J-P58 variant known as J-Z640 that is found today among Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews as well as other populations originating in the Middle East (see Waas, Yacobi, et al, 2019[7]).
The Avotaynu Project: The Genetic Census of the Jewish People is an independent team of academics and community historians that has compiled over 10,000 donated DNA results largely from the Ashkenazi community since 2000 and has methodically sought out and tested 2,000 individuals from far-flung non-Ashkenazi Jewish communities since 2016. Active testing continues. As part of its process, the Avotaynu study starts with an initial Y37 panel on each of its participants in an effort to detect possible new lineages and then re-runs representative samples within each prospective lineage utilizing NGS to define ancestral connections with specificity.
All of the Avotaynu Project’s DNA samples were processed at the Houston, Texas laboratory of Family Tree DNA; Goran Runfeldt, Michael Sager, and Paul Maier of the FTDNA staff participated in the identification and dating of Y chromosome variants. Further information about the study can be found at www.AvotaynuOnline.com;. The study administrators welcome inquiries via Adam.Brown@AvotaynuDNA.org.
[1] Hammer, M.F., Behar, D.M., Karafet, T.M. et al. Extended Y chromosome haplotypes resolve multiple and unique lineages of the Jewish priesthood. 2009; Hum Genet 126: 707–717. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-009-0727-5
[2] Chiaroni J, King RJ, Myres NM, Henn BM, Ducourneau A, Mitchell MJ, Boetsch G, Sheikha I, Lin AA, Nik-Ahd M, Ahmad J, Lattanzi F, Herrera RJ, Ibrahim ME, Brody A, Semino O, Kivisild T, Underhill PA. The emergence of Y-chromosome haplogroup J1e among Arabic-speaking populations. Eur J Hum Genet. 2010 Mar 18(3):348-53. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987219/ Epub 2009 Oct 14. PMID: 19826455; PMCID: PMC2987219.
[3] Sahakyan H, Margaryan A, Saag L, et al. Origin and diffusion of human Y chromosome haplogroup J1-M267. 2021 Sci Rep. 11(1):6659. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33758277/
[4] For a description of the methodology used to date the sample described in this study, see Begg T, et al., Genomic analyses of hair from Ludwig van Beethoven 2023 Current Biology 33(8):1431-1447.e22, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.041
[5] Shlush LI, Behar DM, Yudkovsky G, Templeton A, Hadid Y, et al., The Druze: A Population Genetic Refugium of the Near East. 2008. PLOS ONE 3(5): e2105. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002105
[6] Skorecki, K., Selig, S., Blazer, S. et al. Y chromosomes of Jewish priests. 1997 Nature 385, 32. https://doi.org/10.1038/385032a0
[7] Waas, M., Yacobi, D., Kull, L., Urasin, V., Magoon, G., Penninx, W., Brown, A., Nogueiro, I. Haplogroup J-Z640-Genetic Insight into the Levantine Bronze Age. 2019 Journal of Phylogenetics & Evolutionary Biology 7:1 https://www.hilarispublisher.com/open-access/haplogroup-jz640genetic-insight-into-the-levantine-bronze-age.pdf
