Y Chromosomes and The Book of Mormon: Let's Get Something Straight

There has been a flare-up over DNA and the Book of Mormon--this time among believing members. I've had a hard time figuring out exactly what Rod Meldrum's scientific claims are. The best I've found so far is apparently the latest essay by Simon Southerton, "How DNA Divides LDS Apologists." Meldrum appears to be making claims about mtDNA haplogroup X. However, I want to discuss the Y chromosome for a moment.

I freely admit that I am not a geneticist, and I'll be happy to be schooled if I'm getting something wrong. Also, my specific criticism should not be construed as general criticism of those making the claims I criticize below. Now let's get down to business.

Some apologists seem to be making the basic following claim: Certain Y chromosome groups are found among Native Americans, people around Siberia, and among some Jewish groups. Although this chromosome grouping may come from Siberia (which is congruent with mtDNA and archaeology), it could come from the Jewish groups instead, and uncertainty in dating increases the plausibility of this interpretation.

I will try to explain why I think this is wrongheaded. Of course it should be obvious that if scientists thought there were good grounds to connect Native Americans with Jewish groups, we would not be having this discussion. And multiple lines of evidence point to Asia over 10,000 years ago, so why should we try to interpret the Y chromosome data in a way that runs counter to the other lines of evidence? But aside from these more philosophical objections, I think that the progressing science is casting additional doubt on the above claim.

The nomenclature of the Y chromosome groupings is quite a hurdle in itself, which is not helped by the fact that it has undergone several revisions. Originally, several researchers were using their own designations and things became a mess. In 2002 the Y Chromsome Consortium established a nomenclature for everyone to use. (It has recently been updated, but I'll get to that in a minute.)

Jeff Lindsay pointed out that haplogroup 1C is found in both Native Americans and some Jews. However, as of 2002 the designation 1C does not exist anymore. This figure shows the Y chromosome haplogroups and how they relate to each other. On the right are colored columns that show the different designations used by different researchers. If you look at the pink column toward the bottom, you will find two labels of 1C. By comparing that to what is on the left, it looks to me that in retrospect, 1C was not very well defined and even included groups not actually closely related. In other words, as additional details and groupings were filled in, it became apparent that the 1C designation was not helpful any more. So much for 1C.

Others make the same claims for M242 or P-36 (which is roughly equivalent to 1C), however similar issues are at play. Below are the latest haplogroup Q designations and relationships (click for bigger image) [1]. You can compare it with the Wikipedia Haplogroup Q page, which is helpful.




Everything to the right of M3 is known exclusively in Native Americans. If you work your way left to P36.2 (formerly P36) and then M242, you will see that the M3 grouping constitutes only a part of what is now included under P36.2 and M242. So to say that P36.2 is also found in Jews is not very informative. If I read this correctly, the closest relative to the M3 group is Q1a3*, which is found in Pakistan and India. If you look at the Wikipedia page, you'll see that if you move up another level you'll find that Yemeni Jews are related, but so are people of Asia and Siberia. The relationship to Jews is at best ambiguous here.

But it looks like we can go a step further. Some apologists point out the uncertainty in dating distinguishing mutations and hint that if we simply adjust time frames, then it all makes sense. Unfortunately for that argument, human remains from On Your Knees cave in Alaska, that radiocarbon dated to 10,300 years ago, yielded Y chromosome DNA falling in the M3 group. This independent dating puts a minimum time on the entrance (or origination) of M3 into North America.

Your head, like mine, is probably spinning by now. In summary, I think apologists should stop trying to link Native American Y chromosomes with that of Jews. Haplogroups represent somewhat arbitrary groupings. The question is not whether Native American genes are related to Jews (of course they are), but how close is the relationship and what time frames are we dealing with? So far it looks like the answers to those questions continue to be that most Native American DNA originated in Asia over 10,000 years ago.

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Notes:
1. Tatiana M. Karafet, Fernando L. Mendez, Monica B. Meilerman, Peter A. Underhill, Stephen L. Zegura, and Michael F. Hammer. New binary polymorphisms reshape and increase resolution of the human Y chromosomal haplogroup tree. Genome Res., May 2008; 18: 830 - 838.

Unfortunately I cannot access this paper, but it will become freely available in November. However, the haplogroup chart from which I made the image above is available for download (28MB pdf).

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