Gene trawl shows Druze are living “gene sanctuary” Posted on May 12th
genetic sanctuary of ancient lineages of DNA, researchers
reported on Wednesday.
Not only does the exclusive religious community offer a
snapshot into the history of the Middle East, but their
well-preserved diversity may provide opportunities for medical
research, the team at the Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology said.
The researchers looked at mitochondrial DNA, a type of
genetic material that is passed down virtually unchanged from
mother to daughter. It can provide a kind of snapshot of the
ancestry of a person.
“Altogether we sampled 311 different paternal households
from 20 Druze villages in Northern Israel, and 208 surnames
were identified,” Karl Skorecki and colleagues wrote in the
Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE.
The mitochondrial DNA backed up the legendary origin of
this close-knit religious group, believed to number 1 million
or fewer.
For instance, Skorecki’s team discovered an unusually high
frequency of a haplogroup, or a distinct collection of genetic
markers, called haplogroup X. Haplogroup X is rare but is found
around the world among diverse groups.
This fits in with the known history of the Druze, who
mostly live in mountainous regions of Lebanon, Syria, Israel
and Jordan, and provides “a sample snapshot of the genetic
landscape of the Near East prior to the modern age,” the
researchers wrote.
Marriage outside the group is discouraged, first cousins
often marry, and it is impossible to convert to the religion,
an offshoot of Islam.
UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY
The Druze religion was founded in the year 1017 by what
were believed to have been an ethnically diverse group of
people and Skorecki’s team’s findings support this.
“The populations with the smallest genetic distances to the
Druze were: Turks, Armenians, Iranians and Egyptians,” they
wrote.
This diversity offers a unique opportunity for researchers
to study whether people who have different types of
mitochondrial DNA are predisposed to different kinds of
diseases.
“You can look at 150 kinds of mitochondrial DNA within one
group with a similar environment, and be able to see the
specific contribution of these variations,” Skorecki said in a
statement.
And the different populations may offer interesting
insights.
“Since they are comprised of so many distinct lineages,
genetic disease may vary from clan to clan and village to
village,” said Skorecki, who found genetic evidence that
modern-day Jewish priests, called Kohanim, are descendants of a
single common male ancestor.
This would be consistent with legend that the Kohanim are
the descendants of the Biblical high priest Aaron.
Skorecki also led a team that found evidence that 40
percent of Ashkenazi or European-origin Jews are descended from
four “founding mothers,” who lived in Europe 1,000 years ago.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and
Xavier Briand)
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