y-chromosomal status of six indo-european-speaking arab subpopulations in chaharmahal and bakhtiari province, iran

Background: we analyzed the y-chromosome haplogroups of six documented arab subpopulations that accommodated separately in different counties of chaharmahal and bakhtiari province but nowadays speak indo-european language (luri and farsi). methods: this was an outcome study conducted in 2015 to test whether there was any genetic relatedness among some indo-european-speaking arab subpopulation accommodated in a geographically similar region, chaharmahal and bakhtiari province, iran. seven main y-chromosome bi-allelic markers were genotyped in six documented arab subpopulations. therefore, after dna extraction from blood samples, pcr reaction carried out by designed primers for j1-m267, j2-m172, and j-m304, i-m170, ij-m429, f-m89 and k-m9 markers. then pcr products after quality control on agarose gel were sequenced. results: most subjects (83.3%) belonged to f-m89 haplogroup. these subjects belonged to k-m9 (40%), j2-m172 (40%) and i-m170 (20%). generally, there were at least three genetically distinct ancestors with a divergence date of about 22200 yr for i, 429000 for j and 47400 before present for k haplogroup and may show separate historical migrations of studied populations. as the most recent common ancestor (mrca) of most of these populations, haplogroup f, lived about 40000-50000 yr ago, the data do not support a nearly close genetic relationship among all of these populations. however, there were populations with same haplogroups j2 (n=2), k (n=2), or with a closer mrca, ij haplogroups, among i and j2 haplogroups. finding haplogroup i, a specific european haplogroup, among arab populations was not expected. conclusion: identification of various haplogroups in arab subpopulations despite its small area and geographically conserved region of this part of iranian plateau was unexpected.