Origin and diffusion of human Y chromosome haplogroup J1-M267

Human Y-chromosome haplogroup J1-M267 is a frequent male lineage in West Asia. One high-frequency region – encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, southern Mesopotamia, and the southern Levant – resides ~2,000 kilometers away from the other one found in the Caucasus. Low-frequency region between them, nevertheless, exhibits high genetic diversity. Studies associate this haplogroup with the spread of farming from the Fertile Crescent to Europe, the spread of mobile pastoralism in the deserted regions in the Arabian Peninsula, the history of Jews, and the spread of Islam. Here we study past human male demography in West Asia with 172 high-coverage whole Y chromosome sequences and 889 genotyped samples of haplogroup J1-M267. We show that this haplogroup evolved ~20,000 years ago somewhere in northwestern Iran, the Caucasus, the Armenian Highland, and northern Mesopotamia. The major branch – J1a1a1-P58 – evolved during the early Holocene ~9,500 years ago somewhere in the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant and southern Mesopotamia. Haplogroup J1-M267 expanded during the Chalcolithic, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Most probably, the spread of Afro-Asiatic languages, the spread of mobile pastoralism in the arid zones, or both these events together explain the distribution of haplogroup J1-M267 we see today in the southern regions of West Asia.