Distinctive genetic signatures in the Libyan Jews

Unlinked autosomal microsatellites in six Jewish and two non-Jewish populat ions were genotyped, and the relationships among these populations were exp lored. Based on considerations of clustering, pairwise population different iation, and genetic distance, we found that the Libyan Jewish group retains genetic signatures distinguishable from those of the other populations, in agreement with some historical records on the relative isolation of this c ommunity. Our methods also identified evidence of some similarity between E thiopian and Yemenite Jews, reflecting possible migration in the Red Sea re gion. We suggest that high-resolution statistical methods that use individu al multilocus genotypes may make it practical to distinguish related popula tions of extremely recent common ancestry.