Copyright © 2003 The American Society of Human Genetics. All rights reserved.
The American Journal of Human Genetics, Volume 72, Issue 4, 1058-1064, 1 April 2003
doi:10.1086/374384
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Extensive Female-Mediated Gene Flow from Sub-Saharan Africa into Near Eastern Arab Populations
Martin Richards1, 
, 
, Chiara Rengo2, 3, Fulvio Cruciani2, Fiona Gratrix4, James F. Wilson5, Rosaria Scozzari2, Vincent Macaulay6 and Antonio Torroni7
1 Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, United Kingdom;
2 Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Università di Roma “La Sapienza,”
3 Istituto di Medicina Legale, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome;
4 Department of Biological Sciences, Imperial College,
5 Department of Biology, University College London, London;
6 Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom;
7 Dipartimento di Genetica e Microbiologia, Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy
Address for correspondence and reprints: Dr. Martin Richards, Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH, United Kingdom.Abstract
We have analyzed and compared mitochondrial DNA variation of populations from the Near East and Africa and found a very high frequency of African lineages present in the Yemen Hadramawt: more than a third were of clear sub-Saharan origin. Other Arab populations carried ∼10% lineages of sub-Saharan origin, whereas non-Arab Near Eastern populations, by contrast, carried few or no such lineages, suggesting that gene flow has been preferentially into Arab populations. Several lines of evidence suggest that most of this gene flow probably occurred within the past ∼2,500 years. In contrast, there is little evidence for male-mediated gene flow from sub-Saharan Africa in Y-chromosome haplotypes in Arab populations, including the Hadramawt. Taken together, these results are consistent with substantial migration from eastern Africa into Arabia, at least in part as a result of the Arab slave trade, and mainly female assimilation into the Arabian population as a result of miscegenation and manumission.
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