page_title: Genetic studies on Moroccans
section_title: E-M78
hierarchical_section_title: Genetic studies on Moroccans / Moroccan Y-DNA chromosome / E-M78
caption_attribution_description: ==Distribution of Y haplotype EM-78 E1b1b1a in North Africa, West Asia and Europe. Data psuedocolored based on data in Table 1. from (Am J Hum Genet. 2004 May; 74(5): 1023–1034.) Regions with stripes indicate data given twice of a region but substantively different values. For Albania, the colors indicate Calabrian Albanians or Albanians, For Israel the colors are either Ashkenazi or Sephardic Jews. The map from which the boundaries were derived was rebordered black, bodies of water were recolored blue. The image was painted in paintbrush.
context_page_description: Moroccan genetics encompasses the genetic history of the people of Morocco, and the genetic influence of this ancestry on world populations. It has been heavily influenced by geography.
  In prehistoric times, the Sahara desert to the south and the Mediterranean Sea to the north were important geographical barriers. West Asia and Northeast Africa form a single land mass at the Suez. The Maghreb and Southwest Europe are separated by only 15 km at the Straits of Gibraltar, and a similar distance separates the Horn of Africa from the Arabian peninsula at the Bab el-Mandeb strait. At periods of low sea-levels, such as during a glacial maximum, islands that are currently submerged in the Mediterranean, and possibly in between the Gibraltar straits, would have been habitable. These may have encouraged bidirectional demic diffusion between Africa and Europe. During wetter phases of the Sahara, some populations in central Africa would have moved north into southern parts of North Africa. West Asian populations would have also been attracted to a wet Sahara, arriving either through the Suez, the Bab el-Mandeb or the Mediterranean.
context_section_description: The most basal and rare E-M78* paragroup has been found at lower frequencies in Moroccan Arabs. 
  The sub-clade E-V65 is found in high levels in the Maghreb regions of far northern Africa. Cruciani et al. (2007) report levels of about 20% amongst Libyan Arab lineages, and about 30% amongst Moroccan Arabs. It appears to be less common amongst Berbers, but still present in levels of >10%. The authors suggest a North African origin for this lineage. In Europe, only a few individuals were found in Italy and Greece.
  Capelli et al. (2009) studied the beta cluster in Europe. They found small amounts in Southern Italy, but also traces in Cantabria, Portugal and Galicia, with Cantabria having the highest level in Europe in their study, at 3.1% (5 out of 161 people).
  Other frequencies of E1b1b1a1c (E-V22) is reported by Cruciani et al. (2007) include Moroccan Arabs (7.27%, 55 people) and Moroccan Jews (8%, 50 people).
caption: Distribution density of E1b1b1a (E-M78) in select areas of Africa and Eurasia.
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