Historical Information re Discovery of R1a1a Ashkenazi Levite-Specific SNPs

[This page, originally posted in 2014, provides a snapshot in time. As discussed elsewhere on this website, including on this page posting SNP-based trees for R1a-Y2619 Ashkenazi Levites, full Y-DNA testing since 2014 has allowed the identification of four major R1a-Y2619 branches below the R1a-Y2619 level, along with dozens of subclusters within those branches.]

Much of the information that we now know about the SNPs that are shared by R1a1a Ashkenazi Levites and their closest matches and those that are specific to R1a1a Ashkenazi Levites was discovered in 2013 and 2014.

In their 2013 paper, Rootsi & Behar et al. identified six SNPs that are present in R1a1a Ashkenazi Levites and their closest match (a man from Iberia whom, they believe, may be of Moorish descent): (1) Z2469/CTS6; (2) M582/CTS2253/Z2474; (3) Z2475/CTS3412; (4) Z2476/ CTS3605; (5) Z2477/CTS8448; and (6) F2997.

Rootsi & Behar et al. also identified SNPs as having been found in both Ashkenazi samples but not the Iberian sample: (1) Y2619/S4589; (2) Z2471; (3) Y2620/S4583; (4) Y2621; (5) Y2622/S4575; (6) Y2623; (7) Y2624/S4598; (8) Y2625/S4586; (9) Y2626; (10) an SNP with the loci 18735386; (11) Y2627; (12) Y2628; and (13) Y2629. (According to Vladimir Tagankin: (1) Z2471 should be included in the list of SNPs shared by R1a1a Ashkenazi Levites and their Iberian match; and (2) the SNP with the loci 18735386 is not shared by both Ashkenazi samples tested by Rootsi & Behar et al.)

Through extensive testing of one of the six SNPs shared by R1a1a Ashkenazi Levites and the man from Iberia - M582/CTS2253/Z2474 - Rootsi & Behar determined that this SNP is also shared by a significant number of other men who are not R1a1a Ashkenazi Levites.

Vladimir Tagankin has identified another seven SNPs that are found in the R1a1a Ashkenazi Levite samples but not the Iberian sample: (1) Y2630; (2) Y2738; (3) Y2739; (4) Y2740; (5) Y2741; (6) Y2743; and (7) Y2745.

In January 2014, Tagankin for the first time identified SNPs that define separate branches of the R1a1a Ashkenazi Levite tree - Y2742 and Y2744). (The Y prefix indicates that the SNPs were identified by the YFull Team.) Tagankin prepared a January 15, 2014 tree for Z2124+ men showing, to the left of the diagram, the SNPs then known to define and to separate R1a1a Ashkenazi Levites.