Haplogroup G-M377 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup defined by the presence of the M377 mutation. It is a subclade of Haplogroup G2b-M3115, which in turn is defined by the M3115 mutation.
Haplogroup G-M377 has been observed among Pashtuns, an Iranic ethnic group, and at lower frequencies among all major Jewish groups, including Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi Jews, as well as among Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrians.
Origin G presents more mysteries regarding its origin and distribution than virtually any other major Y haplogroup. Haplogroups that are rare in certain regions are more common in another, and have rather clear origins in other places where they are more commonly found. G-M377 has none of these obvious characteristics. Until the Second World War it was most common by far in Eastern Europe, a region where it arrived comparatively recently, but rare in other regions; including its likely area of origin. The distribution of G-M377 is sparse and dispersed, with almost no G-M377 haplotypes found in very large intervening regions. This pattern appears to be unique among Y haplogroups. The extreme rarity of G-M377 in northern Pakistan could indicate that G-M377 in this area originates outside the region and was brought there in the historic period, perhaps from further west (Pakistan was part of both the Achaemenid Persian Empire, conquered by Alexander the Great, and then formed a part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom). Pakistani G-M377 haplotypes are quite divergent from the Ashkenazi Jewish clade, and therefore do not at all indicate a recent common origin. Phylogenetic position G* (M201) G1 (M285, M342) G2 (P287) G2a (P15, U5, L31/S149, L149) G2b (M3115) G2b1 (M377) G2b2 (FGC3095)
Haplogroup characteristics
Distinguishing Y-STR alleles For the full listing of all the G2b Y-STR modal haplotype values, see the entry: HRGEN in ySearch.org
All G2b samples tested so far have a null value for the DYS425 marker, (a missing "T" allele of the DYS371 palindromic Y-STR, the result of a RecLOH event. This change is extremely uncommon in the rest of haplogroup G, but apparently happened early in the history of G2b.
+ G2b Y-STR distinguishing allele values Y-STR Allele range Modals DYS393 12-13 13 DYS390 23-24 23 DYS19 15-17 1517 DYS391 10-12 1011 DYS385* 13,1513,1613,1714,16 13,16 DYS426 11 DYS388 12 DYS439 11-12 11 DYS392 11 DYS389 13,2913,3013,3114,3114,3214,3315,33 13,3014,3114,32 DYS459 8,9 DYS464 13,13,14,1513,13,15,1513,14,14,1513,14,15,15 13,14,15,15 DYS607 15-1716 DYS395S1a 16,16 DYS425 null DYS413 21,22 DYS436 11 DYS481 19 DYS461 12 * In haplogroup G2b, according to the Kittler Protocol for DYS385 which tests for the actual order of the DYS385 alleles along the Y chromosome, the smaller allele precedes the larger and therefore the allele sequence given here is physically correct.
Primer sequence
SNPname gene genelocation Y position M377 DDX3Y intron 10 15,536,827 Primer (5'→3') position(bp) SNP forward reverse length(bp) 40 A→T 326
Distribution
Ashkenazi Jews A cluster of closely related Ashkenazi Jews represent majority confirmed G-M377 persons worldwide, both from private testing, and from academic studies. Of 211 known European G-M377, 8 are known to have non-Jewish patrilineal ancestors. G-M377 makes up about 7% of all Ashkenazi Jewish Y chromosome haplotypes, as was found in Behar et al. (2004) (n=442, GxG2=33). In the supplemental data from Behar et al. (2004), among the Ashkenazi Jewish G haplotypes 4 and 6-15 are G-M377, 2,3,5 are G-M285, and the haplogroup of the first listed is unclear. In a sample of 955 haplogroup G haplotypes, there are 103 Ashkenazi G-M377 and 14 Ashkenazi G-M285. Among Jews in Israel drawn from many areas of the world, G-M377 constituted 3.7% in one study. European G2b comparative haplotype table G2c SMGF.org haplotype search
Western Germany G-M377 is also found among Ashkenazi Jews from Western Germany. Jews were not allowed to reside in most parts of Germany in the 16th and 17th centuries, aside from the Frankfurt Jewish Ghetto. Jews were expelled in 1670 from Vienna and the Archduchy of Austria. After Khmelnytsky's Pogrom in Poland in 1648, there began a migration of Jews from Poland and Lithuania to Western Germany, which accelerated and continued into the 19th century. A significant number of German Jewish G-M377 appear to represent a pre-1640s independent settlement; some however may be the result of a migration from Eastern Europe.
Sicily Among Europeans, there are a few significant exceptions to this almost exclusive Ashkenazi Jewish distribution - out of the more than 2,000 known European G-M377, there are 4 Sicilians, including 3 members of one family with a tradition of Jewish patrilineal descent from the 16th century Sicily.
Syria and Lebanon There are a few individuals of Syrian and Lebanese descent that also share this haplogroup. These G-M377 haplotypes form a separate cluster that is very different from the Ashkenazi Jewish clade.
Eastern Anatolia A confirmed G-M377 Y-STR haplotype found in the literature is haplotype 54 from a study of Anatolian Y chromosomes (n=523) by Cinnioglu et al. (2004) which was found in Eastern Turkey, in the city of Kars, very close to Armenia.
Armenia An Armenian from Syunik was found to have basal G-M377*
Iran Haplogroup G-M377 was found in 1.6% (1/63) of Azerbaijanis from West Azerbaijan province in Iran in a 2012 study.
Afghanistan Study has found that Haplogroup G-M377 reaches 14.7% in Afghan Pashtuns from Baghlan (5/34), 7.5% in Pashtuns from Kunduz (4/53), 2.7% in Tajiks from Badakhshan (1/37) and 3.7% in Tajiks from Balkh (2/54).
Pakistan There are just two other confirmed G-M377 samples that have been publicly reported in the academic literature so far, one Pashtun in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and one Burusho in the Hunza Valley in Kashmir. These two G-M377 are Y-STR haplotypes 731 and 794 from Table 3 in the study by of Indian (n=728), Pakistani (n=176), and East Asian (n=175) Y chromosome lineages. Firasat et al. (2007) found 1 G among 97 Burushos, and in Sengupta et al. (2006) the only Burusho G was G-M377, making it likely that this single G is G-M377 as well. The Y Chromosome Haplotype Reference Database has several haplotypes from India and Pakistan that are very likely to be G-M377 .
Upcoming studies
Two possible G-M377 Y-STR haplotype samples in the literature are from the study of Jewish and non-Jewish Near Eastern Y chromosomes by (in the Appendix Table A1), haplotype 51 which was found in 1 Ashkenazi Jew (n=79) and 3 Kurdish Jews (n=99), and haplotype 47 which was found in 1 Iraqi Jew (combined Iraqi Jews n=20 and Syrian Jews n=3). However, recently advancements in haplogroup prediction have determined these haplotypes G-M377. These also belong to what was termed at the time "Haplogroup 2", (F*, G, and I) and within this set of haplogroups these display a Y-STR allele pattern unique to haplogroup G-M377. In this study, G-M377 was found among 3% of Kurdish Jews. Other Y chromosome samples taken from an upcoming study of Sephardi and Near Eastern (Mizrahi) Jews have found only a few GxG2 (in Y chromosome haplogroup G but not in G2) samples. Preliminary indications are that in this study, only a single Turkish Jew matches any of the modal haplotypes for G-M377, however, all of these samples are being tested for M377.
Comparison of regional haplotypes Population andLocation n Status DYS393 DYS390 DYS19 DYS391 DYS385 DYS426 DYS388 DYS439 DYS392 DYS389 DYS438 DYS461= add 2 to DYSA7.2 Ashkenazi Jews Poland–Lithuania Western Germany Sicilians 300 confirmed1213 222324 1516 91011 13,1513,1614,16 11 12 1112 11 13,3013,3113,3213,3314,3114,3214,3315,33 10 12 TurkeyKars 1 confirmed 13 23 16 10 11 12 11 11 13,29 Pashtuns 1 confirmed 13 23 16 11 13,16 11 12 11 11 13,30 Pashtuns 6 confirmed 13 23 17 10 11 12 11 11 13,30 12 BurushoHunza Valley 1 confirmed 13 23 17 11 11 12 11 11 13,30 12 GreekAthens 1 unlikely 13 23 16 11 13,16 11 13,31 Syrians 2 unlikely 13 23 16 11 14,1614,15 11 13,30 IranianTehran 1 unlikely 13 23 17 10 13,16 11 13,29 Iraqi Jew 1 predicted G2b 13 23 15 11 11 12 11 ArmeniansThe Ani regionNagorno-Karabakh 5 predicted G2b 13 23 15 10 11 12 11 Kurdish Jews 3 predicted G2b 13 23 15 10 11 12 11
Time to the Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA) The time to the Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA) for European G-M377, derived by generating a median-joining network of over 25 haplotypes with 67 Y-STRs, yields a date of 955 years from the average birth year of the testees (estimated to be 1950), with a standard deviation of 107 years. The mutation rate used is based on that of family groups with known most recent common ancestors. So far, this TMRCA includes all groups of European G-M377, including it seems from preliminary evidence, the Italians.
This late tMRCA date for all of G-M377 in Europe raises the question of when G-M377 first entered Europe. If G-M377 entered Europe at an earlier period, we would expect to see more divergent haplotypes than are currently observed. The geographically specific distribution of G-M377 in Europe combined with the very late TMRCA raises the question of from where G-M377 could have entered Europe. Also, was the spread of G-M377 in Europe from the Kingdom of Poland to Germany and Italy, from German to Italy and Poland, or Italy northward to both other areas? No one particular region seems to be more divergent than any other, and in fact, there doesn't seem to be any geographically correlated subclades within European G-M377, with samples from each region matching some from other regions more closely than ones from the same region.
Possible history
One very early G-M3115 sample, although it was derived as a negative for the SNP M377, was found in the remains of an individual dating back to 7000 BCE at Wezmeh Cave, a site near Eslamabad-e Gharb in the Kermanshah province in western Iran. Specifically, it belonged to G-Y37100.
Sicily It is estimated that Jews made up 6% or more of the population of Sicily in 1492. Historical evidence shows that most Sicilian Jews went eastward to the Ottoman Empire, where Sicilian Jewish congregations existed in Salonika and Constantinople until the late 19th century. However, it is known that many Sicilian Jews first went to Calabria, and then Jews were expelled from Calabria in 1524, and later from the entire Kingdom of Naples in 1540. There was a gradual movement throughout the 16th century of Jews in Italy from south to north, with conditions worsening for Jews in Rome after 1556 and Venice in the 1580s. Many Jews from Venice and the surrounding area migrated to Poland and Lithuania at this time.
In this scenario it may be that there was a direct migration from Sicily or Southern Italy separately to both Western Germany and Poland-Lithuania, but the presence of G2b in Germany may be due to an earlier migration from France or Spain; as the presence of G2b2 ancestors in Germany appears to date from at least the early 1500s.