Explanation of the pattern of P49a,f TaqI RFLP Y-chromosome variation in Egypt

Abstract

The possible factors involved in the generation of the p49a,f TaqI Y-chromosome spatial diversity in Egypt are explored. The object is to consider explanations beyond those that emphasize gene flow mediated via military campaigns within the Nile corridor during the dynastic period. Current patterns of the most common variants (V, XI, IV) have been suggested to relate to Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom political actions in Nubia, including sometimes settler colonization, and the conquest of Egypt by Napata (in upper Nubia, northern Sudan) that initiated Dynasty XXV. Other events or processes have not been presented. However, a synthesis of evidence from archaeology, historical linguistics, texts, the distribution of haplotypes outside of Egypt, and some demographic considerations, lends greater support to the establishment, before the Middle Kingdom, of the observed distributions of the most prevalent haplotypes: V, XI, and IV. It is suggested that the pattern of diversity for these variants in the Egyptian Nile Valley, was largely the product of population events that occurred in the late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene through Dynasty I, and was sustained by continuous smaller scale bi-directional migrations/interactions. The higher frequency of V in Ethiopia than in Nubia or upper (southern) Egypt, has to be taken into account in any discussion of variation in the Nile Valley, especially in the context of the findings of historical linguistics. © 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.