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A study to see whether inbreeding in Arabs and Berbers marriages would be reflected in the differentiation between Berber and Arab communities is presented. Concerning mtDNA, the Berber group presented a greater Eurasian contribution and no U6 haplotypes were found whereas, the Arabs showed a larger contribution of-sub-Saharan lineages and the U6 haplogroup amounted to 10%.

An analysis based on two systems for describing the human mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) has been carried out using 95 samples from the Near East and northwest Caucasus. One procedure is assaying restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) all through the genome and the other is sequencing of parts of the control region (CR). The concordance of the two systems has been demonstrated. Variation in mtDNA is used to infer histories of peoples. The most refined phylogeny so far found for west Eurasian mtDNA has been presented and a nomenclature described and applied for mtDNA clusters. Hypervariable nucleotides have been identified. Relative mutation rates of the two systems have been evaluated with ambiguities identified. Berber speakers were sampled and a identification of signature mutations for each cluster led to a hierarchical scheme for finding cluster composition. The main indigenous North African cluster is a sister group to the most ancient cluster of European mRNAs. It diverged about 50,000 years ago.

The Arab-speaking Moroccans gene profile has been compared with those of other Mediterranean populations in order to provide additional information about the history of their origins. Genetic distances, neighbor joining and correspondence analyses have been done after HLA-DNA indirect sequencing. Our HLA data suggest that most Moroccans are of a Berber t (Imazighen) origin and that Arabs who invaded North Africa and Spain in the 7th century A.D. did not substantially contributed to the gene pool; however, they imposed their advanced culture and their religion. Present day Egyptians are also related to Moroccan Berbers and this supports an ancient Saharan origin for part of the present day Mediterraneans, particularly for the Arab-speaking ones (also Algerians) and also for the older substratum of Mediterranean people, which include Iberians (also Basques), Italians, North Africans (from Egypt, Algeria, Morocco), Jews, Lebanese and Anatolians (Turks). Circum-Mediterranean cultural and gene flow have existed in glacial and interglacial periods according to our genetic and linguistic data. Greeks are found in a more recent substratum and may have reached the Balkans after 2000 BC. This is supported by historical records: the first Indoeuropean (pre-Mycaenian) Greeks came to the Balkanic Peninsula by the 2nd millennium BC.