Rh Negative Genetics

Recently I have started revisiting our history:

The History of the World through the Eyes of Blood

And our current situation:

Where did the original Basques migrate from?

And why do we fail to acknowledge how and why their gene pool has (been) changed so rapidly at one point?

I am equally if not more interested in our future:

The Origin of Rh Negative Blood and People

UPDATE:

I am keeping this post research based and will not speculate, but rather write around old, current and especially new research. Unfortunately official research is only as good as those conducting it and there will from time to time be information turning out questionable and often even untrue. This is why this top post in bold is here to make sure you, the reader are going to get immediate updates should something be wrong. Please also subscribe to this blog to ensure new research and posts are not going to be missed.
Please note:
Whether or not the Berbers or any of their tribes is specifically high in rh negative blood is to be questioned:
Are Berbers really 40% rh negative?

One of the most common questions in terms of the rh negative blood factor is our origin.
We may not be able to get the answers within our lifetime, but I am starting today to move closer towards them.
The best place to start is anywhere the rh negative blood factor is high and then analyze the changes, the process of mixing with others and the migrations.
Looking at national averages makes no sense here, but focusing on specific regions is the key.
In Chile for example, there are communities where around 1 percent are rh negative while others are more than 20 percent. Cuba as a latest addition is also quite extreme.

Because of that it is important to have genetic testing to see which markers we have in common and then see where they originate.

Let’s begin with the Basque region.

When it comes to the mtDNA side, the female side, here are 3 markers standing out:

The Basques stand out from the rest of Europe by their exceptionally high frequency of haplogroup H (61.5%, including 44% of H1 and H3).

Sources: Post New mtDNA & Y-DNA frequencies for the Basques

Today, around 4% of the mtDNA genepool in the Basque region is K, but 5,000 years ago it was 17-24% indicating a huge trend reversed towards possibly a very high number. The fact that only around 1% of the mtDNA is T, the Mesopotamian marker simply might indicate that there were different tribes within the Fertile Crescent and only certain ones migrated towards the Pyrenees.

One would be K, the other one mtDNA J.

MtDNA K is said to have its origins in Western Asia. J is said to come from the Caucasus. H from Southwest Asia. And T somewhere Near East.

Let’s look at the y-DNA of the Basques, the male side:

A predominance of R1b with Western Asia possibly being the origin as it is in mtDNA K.

A lot of people call the origin of the Basques a mystery as they were the first Europeans and “nobody knows where they came from”.

But isn’t this already a strong indication that the Fertile Crescent, Sumer and other regions would be were this population has migrated from?

So what is this indicating about the rh negative blood factor?

Think about it:

For thousands of years the Basques have been mixing with neighbors from the outside therefore lowering the percentage of rh negatives which is now at around 35%.
That would indicate that a few thousand years ago the number must have been a lot higher.
This group migrating from the east may have had a percentage of rh negatives that goes way beyond what we have ever seen close to 100%.

So we are getting a little bit closer to our origin and we have only gotten started.

And this is a world map of y-DNA R1b. As you can see the region in and around Chad which Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza has listed as being high in rh negative blood type frequencies, is also seen there. It includes northern Nigeria as well.

And to get a good idea how the tribes may have wandered, this is a breakdown of the Mediterranean islands and surroundings:

It is said that all human beings on earth share one common male ancestor who has lived between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago:

Y-chromosomal Adam

The term YMRCA reflects the fact that the Y chromosomes of all currently living males are directly derived from the Y chromosome of this remote ancestor. The analogous concept of the matrilineal most recent common ancestor is known as “Mitochondrial Eve” (mtMRCA, named for the matrilineal transmission of mtDNA), the most recent woman from whom all living humans are descended matrilineally.

Mitochondrial Eve

Mitochondrial Eve is the matrilineal most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of all currently living humans. This is the most recent woman from whom all living humans today descend, in an unbroken line, on their mother’s side, and through the mothers of those mothers, and so on, back until all lines converge on one woman, who is estimated to have lived approximately 100,000–200,000 years ago.

As I am currently focused on gene frequencies rather than locations when it comes to rh negative gene frequencies, I cannot help looking at the disconnect between the Basque/Ashkenazi lines and the Berbers.

(Image seen here: www.thegeneticatlas.com)
My goals is to find the common denominators rather than assuming that there was simply mixing going on, even though this is something that could have occurred at a later time creating two tribes with close to 50 percent rh negatives (theoretically speaking) where one tribe is originally 100 percent rh negative the other 100 percent rh positive.

But before I go down that road, I want to see where y-DNA J, E1b1b and R1b meet travelling back to the haplogroups they all derive from.

Haplogroup J

Comes from IJ, comes from IJK, comes from HIJK, comes from GHIJK, comes from F, comes from CF, comes from CT.

Haplogroup R1b

Comes from R1, comes from R, comes from P, comes from K2b, comes from K2, comes from K, comes from IJK, comes from HIJK, comes from GHIJK, comes from comes from F, comes from CF, comes from CT.

Haplogroup E1b1b

Comes from E-P2, comes from E-P177, comes from E-P147, comes from E-M96, comes from DE, comes from CT.

Y-DNA I, J and K all derive from Haplogroup IJK which existed around 47,000-60,000 years ago.

And around 70,000 years before time hapogroup CT origined and this is the one which all 3, J, R1b and E1b1b derive from.

In other words: This has not taught us much so far.

At one point I had considered the theory that the Neanderthals were rh negative and that they are the key to our ancestry. Then I have called the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany and found out that not only were the 2 specimens examined rh positive, but they were homozygotes, meaning they didn’t even carry the rh negative blood factor recessively.

In addition, the amount of Neanderthal DNA seems very high within populations with very low and sometimes no rh negatives amongst them.

One example: Native American tribes with absolutely zero rh negative gene amongst them.

But were all Neanderthals created equal?

Quite the contrary. It is now agreed upon that the differences between the Neanderthal tribes was greater than those of human ethnic groups. So it could have been that there was a group that was actually 100 percent rhesus negative while others 100 percent rhesus positive.

To be continued …

Do you have additional information?
Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.