is due to the fact that both these groups shared a common ancestor either in the Upper Paleolithic, and in the Neolithic or alternatively during history with the invasion and the occupation during nearly seven centuries of the Iberian Peninsula by Moorish troops.[19] A genetic study published in January 2012 stated that the indigenous North-west African ancestry appears most closely related to populations outside of Africa but "divergence between Moroccan people and Near Eastern/Europeans likely precedes the Holocene (>12,000 ya) and The Paleolithic (>40.000BC)."[20]
Recent studies make clear no significant genetic differences exist between Arabic and non-Arabic speaking populations, The human leukocyte antigen HLA DNA data suggest that most Moroccans are of a Berber origin and that Arabs who invaded North Africa and Spain in the 7th century did not substantially contribute to the gene pool.[21][22] The Moorish refugees from Spain settled in the coast-towns.[23] According to a 2000 article in European Journal of Human Genetics, Moroccans from North-Western Africa were genetically closer to Iberians than to Sub-Saharan Africans of Bantu Ethnicity and Middle Easterners.[24]
The different loci studied revealed close similarity between the Berbers and other north African groups, mainly with Moroccan Arabic-speakers, which is in accord with the hypothesis that the current Moroccan population has a strong Berber background.[25]
Various population genetics studies along with historians such as Gabriel Camps and Charles-André Julien lend support to the idea that the bulk of the gene pool of modern Northwest Africans, irrespective of linguistic group, is derived from the Berber populations of the pre-Islamic period.[26]
According to the X-Chromosome SNP analyses, the authors reported a high genetic homogeneity between berbers and Arabs in NW Africa, so they suggested that the Arabisation of this area was a cultural phenomenon, which did not imply a replacement of the ancestry population. Our results give support the hypothesis of an early settlement of northwest Africa. The original berber population seem to have received a low genetic influx from the surrounding areas. Different hypothesis have been suggested to explain the genetic differentiation of the Moroccan population. An initial genetic drift could have caused differences in allele frequency distribution that have not been re-established due to a certain level of geographic isolation. The Strait of Gibraltar has been described by several authors as an important genetic barrier. Even a certain level of genetic exchange probably occurred between NW Africa and the South of the Iberian Peninsula, sharp frequency changes have been described in this area. Also the Sahara desert has been suggested as responsible of the genetic isolation of NW African populations from Sub-Saharan populations. There is no consensus about the impact of the Neolithic demic diffusion in the Mediterranean area. According to our results, a low impact of the Neolithic expansions and/or later migration events on NW African populations would have occurred. X-Chromosome SNP analyses
E-M81
Distribution of Y haplotype E-M81 E1b1b1b in North Africa, West Asia and Europe.
E1b1b1b1 (E-M81), formerly E1b1b1b, E3b1b, and E3b2, is the most common Y chromosome haplogroup in Morocco, dominated by its subclade E-M183.
It is thought to have originated in North Africa 14,200 years ago.[34] Its parent clade E1b1b (E-M215) is believed to have first appeared in Horn of Africa about 42,600 years ago.[35]
This haplogroup reaches a mean frequency of 85% in North Africa. It decreases in frequency from approximately 80% or more in some Moroccan Berber populations, including Saharawis, to approximately 10% to the east of this range in Egypt.[30][36]
Due to the clade's prevalence among these Berber groups and others such as Mozabites, Riffians, Chleuhs, Middle Atlas and Kabyle, it is sometimes referred to as a genetic Berber marker.
This phylogenetic tree of The Berber haplogroup subclades is based on the YCC 2008 tree and subsequent published research as summarized by ISOGG.[37][38][39]
E1b1b1b (L19, V257)
E1b1b1b1 (M81)
E1b1b1b1a (M107) Underhill et al. (2000).
E1b1b1b1b (M183) This clade is extremely dominant within E-M81. In fact, while Karafet et al. (2008) continues to describe this as a sub-clade of E-M81, and ISOGG defers to Karafet et al., all data seems to imply that it should actually be considered phylogenetically equivalent to M81[citation needed]
E1b1b1b1b1 (M165) Underhill et al. (2000).
E1b1b1b1b2 (L351) Found in two related participants in The E-M35 Phylogeny Project.
Average North African Moroccan Berbers have frequencies of E3b3 in the +80%. Alvarez et al.(2009) study shows a frequency of E3b1b of 28/33 or 84.8% in Berbers from Marrakesh. With the rest of the frequencies being 1/33=3% E3a*, 1/33=3% E3b*, 1/33 or 3% E3b1a, and 1/33 or 3% E3b1c.[31]
E1b1b (M81) are Proto-Berber marker E1b1b1b1a1 (
M107) A reduced Proto-Berber lineage in Mali