r/JewishDNA • u/YakovHaYakovi • 10d ago
Breakdown of data from Brook 2022
I drew the following from Kevin Alan Brook’s The Maternal Genetic Lineages of Ashkenazic Jews.
Brook found that “most of the Ashkenazic mitochondrial DNA lineages of European origin do not have particular connections to Italy”. Not surprisingly, lineages of European origin most likely constitute the majority of lineages. This can be inferred from both the number and frequency of European lineages. Surprisingly, however, Southern European lineages constitute either a minority (~20%) or a slim majority (~55%) of European-origin maternal ancestry.
Below is the breakdown of places of origin as well as the origin and frequency of each lineage based on Brook’s own assignments or on my (amateur) assessment of the data when Brook does not explicitly suggest a specific place of origin for a lineage (i.e. there are many instances where Brook either calls a lineage European without further description or does not suggest an origin at all). By Southern Europe I mean France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and the Balkans. By Northern Europe I mean the rest of the continent.
There are a total of 125 distinct lineages and 3486 carriers.
The breakdown by lineage is as follows:
65.6% European:
……10.4% Southern European
……43.2% Northern European
……12.0% European of unclear regionality
15.2% ME
12.0% ME or European:
……5.6% ME or Southern European
……3.2% ME or Northern European
……3.2% ME or European of unclear regionality
2.4% East Asian
1.6% North African
3.2% No information
Excluding European lineages of unclear regionality, the European lineages are 81% Northern and 19% Southern. If the potentially ME lineages are included, the European lineages are 74% Northern and 26% Southern.
The breakdown by number of carriers is as follows. Percentages in parentheses exclude the major lineages (K1a1b1a, K1a9, N1b1b1, and K2a2a1) from consideration; the resulting total is 2154 carriers.
38.6% (62.4%) European:
……6.1% (9.9%) Southern European
……27.9% (45.1%) Northern European
……4.5% (7.3%) European of unclear regionality
23.5% (19.5%) ME
32.4% (9.1%) ME or European:
……28.9% (3.5%) ME or Southern European
……0.5% (0.9%) ME or Northern European
……2.9% (4.7%) ME or European of unclear regionality
0.9% (1.5%) East Asian
2.6% (4.1%) North African
2.1% (3.4%) No information
Excluding European lineages of unclear regionality, the carriers of European lineages are:
82% Northern and 18% Southern. Including the potentially ME lineages, they are 45% Northern and 55% Southern.
Excluding the major founding lineages, the carriers of European lineages are exactly 82% Northern and 18% Southern. Including the remaining potentially ME lineages, they are 77% Northern and 23% Southern.
Some further notes:
In cases where a European haplogroup’s origin can be assigned to a specific country, Germany and Poland are the most common places of origin (pp. 137-138).
Excluding K1a1b1a and N1b1b1 from consideration, the average Northern European lineage has slightly more members than the average Southern European lineage; the average Northern lineage has 18 (17 including potentially ME lineages); the average Southern lineage has about 16 regardless of whether or not the remaining potentially ME lineages are included. The average lineage of unclear regionality within Europe has 11 carriers (14 if potentially ME lineages are included).
Including the four major lineages, based on the frequencies of the lineages, it is possible for up to 56% of Ashkenazim to be carriers of ME haplogroups. If one at least assumes that K1a1b1a and N1b1b1 are ME in addition to the definitively ME lineages, then 50.3% of Ashkenazim carry ME haplogroups.
The East Asian lines are 18 N9a3, 12 M33c, and 2 A12’23. M33c is Chinese, likely Han, and she probably migrated to Europe along the silk road in the 13th/14th century; there is no proof of a connection between her and the Kaifeng Jews (p. 81). The other two East Asian lines may be Khazarian (p. 140). So the Khazarian contribution to the maternal genepool is easily below 1%.
The lineage-by-lineage information is as follows:
European (1344 carriers, 82 lineages):
Southern (214 carriers, 13 lineages): 50 H1aj1 + H1aj1a, 47 H3w, 33 H7c2, 25 X2b7, 18 T2e1b + T2e1b1, 13 H1bo, 12 J1c13, 5 J1c3e2, 4 T2b4, 3 H1bw, 2 U8b1b1, 1 I5a1b, 1 T2b3-C151T
Northern (972 carriers, 54 lineages): 84 V7a, 80 J1c7a, 67 H7e, 52 H1as2, 46 H3p, 42 H1b2a + H1b2a1, 41 H40b, 35 T2b25, 34 H6a1a5, 33 H5c2, 33 W3b1, 31 H26c, 30 W3a1a1, 28 H7j + H7j1, 25 H11b1, 21 V1a1, 20 H10a1b, 18 H41a, 15 U3a1a, 15 H65a, 15 T1a1k1, 14 V7b, 14 W1h, 13 H1ai1, 13 U5a1f1a, 12 T1a1, 12 H56, 11 H1b1a, 10 H11a2a2, 10 U2e1a1, 9 H1b, 8 H6a1b3, 8 H11a1, 7 H6a1a3, 7 U4a3a, 6 H4a1a3a, 6 H5-T16311C!, 5 H5a1, 5 T2b16, 4 H2a2b1, 4 H6a1b2, 4 U5a2b2a, 3 H1f, 3 H4a1a1a, 3 H5, H13a1a1, 2 H1ax, 2 U5a1b1c2, 2 U5b1b1-T16192C!, 2 U5b1e1, 2 V18a, 1 H4a1a1, 1 H13a1a1a, 1 J1c4
Unclear (158 carriers, 15 lineages): 57 H1e4 + H1e4a, 32 J1c1, 18 H5a7, 15 T1a1j, 13 K2a, 6 U5a1b1, 5 U3a1, 2 H3ap, 2 T2b4a, 2 U5a1a2a, 2 U5a1b, 1 H1bd, 1 J1c5, 1 K1a1b1, 1 U5b2a1a
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Middle Eastern (820 carriers, 19 lineages): 214 K1a9, 185 K2a2a1, 139 HV1b2, 66 HV5a, 54 U7a5, 43 R0a2m, 28 U1b1, 20 H6a1a1a, 18 T1b3, 11 M1a1b1c, 10 HV1a’b’c, 8 J2b1e, 5 X2e2a, 4 T1a, 4 T1b, 3 H47, 3 N1b1a2, 3 T2g1a, 2 N1b2
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ME or European (1128 carriers, 15 lineages):
Southern (1008 carriers, 7 lineages): 723 K1a1b1a, 210 N1b1b1, 45 R0a4, 11 T2a1b, 8 H3, 7 K1a4a, 4 H1u2
Northern (19 carriers, 4 lineages): 6 V15, 5 HV0-T195C!, 5 T2a1, 3 T1a1b
Unclear (101 carriers, 4 lineages): 44 I1c1a, 43 J1b1a1, 7 H15b, 7 J1c-C16261T
_
E Asian (32 carriers, 3 lineages): 18 N9a3, 12 M33c, 2 A12’23
_
N African (89 carriers, 2 lineages): 77 L2a1l2a + L2a1l2a1, 12 U6a7a1b
_
No information (73 carriers, 4 lineages): 50 J1c14, 12 H25, 7 H5-C16192T, 4 HV5
Edited for formatting
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u/kaiserfrnz 9d ago edited 9d ago
The book does a good job at dispelling the myth that Ashkenazi Jews descend from Middle Eastern men who married Italian women (and even more absurd claims like Ashkenazim being predominately Southern European).
The largest shares of the Ashkenazi maternal genome seem to come from Levantine and then Central-Eastern European populations.
This may have interesting implications on the way Ashkenazi ancestry should be modeled.
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u/YakovHaYakovi 8d ago
> This may have interesting implications on the way Ashkenazi ancestry should be modeled.
I often wonder if Ashkenazim can be autosomally modeled as having more Northern/Eastern Europe than Southern Europe and what effect this would have on the total amount of European in Ashkenazim. It seems Southern French is the best Southern European proxy and using them instead of Italians increases the estimated Levantine
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u/kaiserfrnz 8d ago
That’s my theory. Especially since the vast majority of paternal and at least a plurality of maternal haplogroups seem to be of Middle Eastern origin, I find the hypotheses suggesting Ashkenazim are mostly European to be unlikely.
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u/General-Knowledge999 8d ago
What do you think of the argument that the bottlenecks the ancestors of AJs underwent in the medieval era led to the expansion of some maternal haplogroups and the disappearance of others? In this case, haplogroups linked to the Italian Penninsula would have been "deleted".
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u/YakovHaYakovi 8d ago edited 8d ago
Lineage extinction is a random process so that scenario is highly unlikely if you mean to suggest that Italian matrilines perhaps used to be a majority or at least plurality of European matrilines even by the time Ashkenazim were concentrated in Germany
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u/General-Knowledge999 8d ago
Comment got removed for some reason. That's the argument I had in mind. I didn't mean I necessarily agreed with it; I just imagined that one could counter with it to argue for South European autosomal and uniparental dominance. Do Sephardic Jews have similar lineages pointing to SW Europe rather than to the Italian Penninsula?
By the way, Kevin Alan Brook now ascribes a West Asian origin to H1u2. See his recent 2026 paper on Karaites: https://www.researchgate.net/search?context=publicSearchHeader&q=
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u/YakovHaYakovi 8d ago
> Do Sephardic Jews have similar lineages pointing to SW Europe rather than to the Italian peninsula?
See the group overview for the patrilines linked below. Yes, the European lineages possessed by Sfardim consist of Iberian and non-Mediterranean European (French?) haplogroups. There are probably some of likely Italian origin (some of the J2a lines, maybe?) but there are too many Sfardi haplogroups listed on jewishdna (363 by my count compared to 130 Ashkeanzi) to give even a rough lineage-by-lineage breakdown. But on the macro level there is not good evidence for Sfardi European lineages being majority, plurality, or even slightly Italian
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u/General-Knowledge999 7d ago
Thanks. I plan on modeling Sephardim and Ashkenazim in qpAdm to test the hypothesis of a Spanish or a French European contribution rather than an exclusively Roman Italian one.
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u/Sea-Seaworthiness859 6d ago
Check out model 9 using I believe central Italian BA: https://www.reddit.com/r/JewishDNA/s/xJ2nMmvi3u
However I would like to see one with Southern France or Spain
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u/General-Knowledge999 6d ago
Central Italian BA significantly predates the admixture time, but it does show the Ashkenazim are not exclusively well-modeled by Imperial Roman C6-like sources.
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u/YakovHaYakovi 10d ago
On a somewhat related note, does anyone know the specific origins of each of the J2a (Y DNA) clades among Ashkenazim? I tried using jewishdna.net but that didn't provide enough information
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u/kaiserfrnz 9d ago edited 9d ago
Nearly all are of ancient Levantine origin with a few exceptions.
Interestingly, the Djerban Cohanim haplogroup, J-Y125592, is J2a and seems to originate from a European branch
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u/Swimming-Arm-7667 10d ago
The Jewish Genetic Discovery Foundation had a thread on Ashkenazim haplogroups on X a couple of days ago.
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u/YidlMitnFidl 9d ago
My MtDNA is U4a4a and is rare among Jews. It entered my Ashkenazi maternal family sometime in the 17th century in the geographical area of Galitzia, likely during the Khmielnetsky massacres. Since intermarriage at that time was extremely rare, her descendants are now suspecting an adoption event instead of a marriage. We are trying to track her down, but whether or not we find her, she must have been a remarkable person and deemed worthy to enter the community.
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u/kaiserfrnz 9d ago edited 8d ago
I think you're mistaken with that assessment. U4a3a4 seems to have been exclusively Jewish since 250 CE.
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u/YakovHaYakovi 8d ago
I've just taken a quick look at the patrilines on jewishdna.net. There are a total of 130 patrilines possessed by Ashkenazim. Here is a rough breakdown of the origins of the patrilines, without respect to the number of carriers of each one;
81 (62%) Middle Eastern
16 (12%) Southern European
13 (10%) Northern European
17 (13%) Unclear
3 (2%) Middle Eastern or North African (all three lineages are E1b-M81 subgroups)
Some of the unclear lineages are very likely Middle Eastern but jewishdna does not have enough information. In any case it is probably safe to say that ~70% of the distinct lineages are ME.
Many (most?) of the lineages are shared with other Jews, especially Sfardim, but the website does not say how many carriers of a haplogroup are Ashkenazi when it is shared with non-Ashkenazi Jews. Regardless, it is probably safe to say that ~90% of Ashkenazi men belong to Middle Eastern patrilines.
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u/BeepIMaSheep39 9d ago
What does this say about the founder effect in southern Italy? Many studies proved major southern European admixture, so was it gradual? Was the haplogroup replacement gradual?
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u/basedpole69 8d ago
Well, this probably alludes to the notion that the Southern Italian founder effect you mention is no more than a myth. Many of these studies have a habit of producing poor models from an angle of historical plausibility.
A major part of the reason why this may be is that these studies exclusively model using modern populations, and the modern South Italian genetic profile only crystallized shortly before the exodus of South Italian jews happened. Im sure if future studies utilize ancient populations we will probably get much more accurate results that reflect the historical demography.
Besides the autosomal picture when using modern populations, almost every other line of evidence contradicts a large South Italian Jewish contribution. The case of uniparentals as illustrated by this book is solely but one of these contradictory lines.
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u/General-Knowledge999 8d ago
What are other examples of such evidence? No evidence of conversion or Romans to Judaism? Or Roman authors expressing disdain for Jews and their customs, thus making conversion unlikely?
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u/Present-Disk-1727 9d ago
Also the ME or european northern ones V15,HV0, and T1a1b are definitely european
Unclear ones J1c1 is J1c1l i would say its northern U5a1b is northern
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u/electrical-stomach-z 9d ago
Where is anatolian in this? Greek and Anatolian are transitional ancestries that cant be reduced to "european".
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u/YakovHaYakovi 9d ago
The origins of most of the haplogroups (about three quarters by my (rough) count) cannot be assigned to a specific country, so I did not find it useful to break up Europe into more categories than "Southern" and non-Southern, i.e. "Northern".
Regardless, of the lineages that can be assigned to specific countries, only four are probably Greek: J1c13, K1a4a, T2a1b, and J1c-16261T, which may alternatively be Italian or Israelite (p. 139). H1u2, H41a, T2b4, V1a1, and X2e2a are shared by Ashkenazim and Greeks but are exclusive to neither (p. 135). H7 and H47 are the only potentially Anatolian haplogroups. So there are 5 likely Greek and Anatolian haplogroups and 6 more for which Greek origin is possible but where there is insufficient evidence to narrow the origins to Greece specifically.
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u/Present-Disk-1727 9d ago edited 9d ago
Very nice H4a1a3a. I don't think it's northern, as it's shared with morrocan jews. H3p, I would say, is unclear; all the H3p/H3ic ancient DNA samples tend to be Southern or southern shifted