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. 2016 Nov 16:6:35837.
doi: 10.1038/srep35837.

Reconstructing Druze population history

Scarlett Marshall  1 , Ranajit Das  2 , Mehdi Pirooznia  3 , Eran Elhaik  4
Affiliations

Reconstructing Druze population history

Scarlett Marshall et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The Druze are an aggregate of communities in the Levant and Near East living almost exclusively in the mountains of Syria, Lebanon and Israel whose ~1000 year old religion formally opposes mixed marriages and conversions. Despite increasing interest in genetics of the population structure of the Druze, their population history remains unknown. We investigated the genetic relationships between Israeli Druze and both modern and ancient populations. We evaluated our findings in light of three hypotheses purporting to explain Druze history that posit Arabian, Persian or mixed Near Eastern-Levantine roots. The biogeographical analysis localised proto-Druze to the mountainous regions of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq and southeast Syria and their descendants clustered along a trajectory between these two regions. The mixed Near Eastern-Middle Eastern localisation of the Druze, shown using both modern and ancient DNA data, is distinct from that of neighbouring Syrians, Palestinians and most of the Lebanese, who exhibit a high affinity to the Levant. Druze biogeographic affinity, migration patterns, time of emergence and genetic similarity to Near Eastern populations are highly suggestive of Armenian-Turkish ancestries for the proto-Druze.

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Conflict of interest statement

E.E. is a consultant to DNA Diagnostic Centre. S.M., R.D. and M.P. declare no competing financial interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Admixture proportions of all populations included in this study.
For brevity, subpopulations were collapsed. The x axis represents individuals. Each individual is represented by a vertical stacked column of colour-coded admixture proportions that reflects genetic contributions from nine putative ancestral populations.
Figure 2
Figure 2. GPS predictions of biogeographical affinities for Afro-Eurasian individuals.
(A) Pie charts reflect the admixture proportions and geographical locations of each reference population excluding reference subpopulations, for brevity. (B) GPS predicted coordinates for Afro-Eurasian populations and subpopulations. Insets show the results in higher resolution. Note: occasionally all individuals of certain populations were predicted to the same spot and thus appear as a single individual. All maps were plotted using the R package rworldmap (Ver 1.3-1, https://r-forge.r-project.org/R/?group_id=1497).
Figure 3
Figure 3. GPS results for Levantine populations.
A map depicting the GPS predicted locations for Druze (A1), Syrians (B1), Palestinians (C1), Lebanese (D1) and Bedouins (E1). The paternal and maternal haplogroups (e.g., mtDNA haplogroup H) of each population are shown at the top of the figures and listed in the legend. Maps depicting GPS-predicted locations after excluding Syrians from the reference panel are marked as 2 (e.g., A2). Dashed lines indicate the Nabataean caravan and trade routes. All maps were plotted using the R package rworldmap (Ver 1.3-1, https://r-forge.r-project.org/R/?group_id=1497).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Undirected graph illustrating the genetic distances between Druze, Syrians and Palestinians.
For coherency, edges are shown only between individuals whose genetic admixture distances are smaller than 0.3. Druze individuals clustered with Syrians (cyan) or Palestinians (dark blue) were highlighted. As expected, this analysis indicated that the Druze are closest to Syrians, particularly those predicted by GPS to originate in Syria. Bedouins clustered northeast to the Palestinians and were excluded from this plot for brevity.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Ancient admixture proportions of Druze and Levantine populations.
For brevity, subpopulations were collapsed. The x axis represents individuals. Each individual is represented by a vertical stacked column of colour-coded admixture proportions that reflects genetic contributions from ancient Levantine, Armenian and Anatolian individuals.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Proportion of total IBD sharing between Druze and different populations.
The maximal IBD between each Druze and an individual from each population are summarised in box plots. Lines pass through the mean values.
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