Studies of
autosomal DNA, which look at the entire DNA mixture, show that Jewish populations have tended to form relatively closely related groups in independent communities with most in a community sharing significant ancestry. For populations of the
Jewish diaspora, the genetic composition of
Ashkenazi,
Sephardi, and
MizrahiJewish populations show significant amounts of shared Middle Eastern ancestry.
According to Behar and colleagues (2010), this is "consistent with a historical formulation of the Jewish people as descending from ancient
Hebrew and
Israelites of the
Levant" and "the dispersion of the people of ancient Israel throughout the
Old World". Jews living in the North African, Italian, and Iberian regions show variable frequencies of admixture with the historical non-Jewish population along the maternal lines. In the case of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews (in particular
Moroccan Jews), who are closely related, the source of non-Jewish admixture is mainly
southern European.
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