Genotyping of geographically diverse Druze trios reveals substructure and a recent bottleneck.

ABSTRACT: Druze individuals rarely marry outside their faith (often practicing consanguinity) and are thus believed to form a genetic isolate. To comprehensively characterize the genetic structure of the Druze population, we recruited and genotyped 40 parent-offspring trios from the Upper Galilee in Israel and the Golan Heights, attempting to capture different extended families (clans) across various geographical locations. Principal component (PC) and ADMIXTURE analyses demonstrated that Druze are close to, yet distinct from, other Middle-Eastern groups (Bedouins and Palestinians), supporting the Druze's Middle-Eastern origin and their recent genetic isolation. Reconstruction of the Druze demographic history using identical-by-descent (IBD) segments suggested an ≈15-fold reduction in population siz

SUBMITTER: Zidan J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4795119 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature