Distribution of Y-chromosomal SNP-haplogroups between males from Ethiopia

Y-chromosomal SNPs are used in phylogenetical studies because in a paternal lineage the Y-SNP "set'' is only changed by mutational events. Lower migration rates of males in the past in local scale cause different haplogroup distributions in closed populations. In the actual haplogroup tree (ISOGG 2008) 20 main haplogroups (A-T) are listed. The Y-chromosomes of 173 unrelated males from Ethiopia (most of them contain to the Amharics) were analysed. For typing, a set of 40 SNPs, which include most of the main haplogroups of the actual phylogenetical tree, were used in combination with the Multiplex PCR Kit (Qiagen) and the SNaPshot(TM) Multiplex Kit (Applied Biosystems). The ABI PRISMTM 310 Genetic Sequenzer was used for allele calling. The distribution of the five detected main haplogroups was calculated against the total number of the 173 analysed samples. 40 males (23.1% of analysed samples) belong to the haplogroup A*. 88 samples (50.9%) were related to haplogroup E*, 43 (24.9%) to haplogroup J* and one sample (0.6%) to each haplogroup F* and G*. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.