Genetic composition of Jewish populations: diversity and inbreeding

Genetic diversity and F statistics analysis, using 9 and 5 blood group loci, respectively, were carried out on 16 Jewish populations from 5 geographic regions: East Europe, Central Europe, South Europe, Middle East and North Africa. The proportion of total diversity found within populations was 98.9% while that between populations, within geographic groups and between groups altogether was only 1.1%. The average heterozygosity between geographic groups ranged from 0.3867 to 0.4150. There were no significant differences between geographic groups of populations in heterozygosity or in its variance. Average estimates of inbreeding were as follows: Fis = 0.0419, Fst = 0.0084 and Fit = 0.0498. Because the heterogeneity and relative proportion of diversity were less between Jewish populations than between non-Jewish ones, we conclude that genetic similarity between Jews is higher than between Gentiles. The findings are in agreement with our previously obtained calculations of genetic distances (Kobyliansky, Micle, Goldschmidt-Nathan, Arensburg and Nathan 1982).