Taha Rhouda a,b , Yahya Dahmani a , Noureddine Elmtili b , Eduardo Ruiz-Pesini a , Mouhamed Idaomar b , Julio Montoya a , Carmen Diez Sanchez a , Manuel J. Lopez Perez a,*

a Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular y Celular, Miguel Servet 177 Zaragoza, Spain
b Université Abdelmalek Essaadi, Faculté des Sciences, Département de Biologíe, BP 2121, 93002 Tetouan, Morocco

Abstract

The population of North Morocco is demographically different of the rest of the country due to the presence of Rif Berber population. However, the genetic variability of this population has not been well studied. To check out this diversity and to compare it with the population of Southern Spain, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hipervariable region (HVR-I) was sequenced and RFLP analysis performed in a sample of 200 men coming from Oujda (130 individuals) and Tetouan (70 individuals). The results obtained show a high heterogeneity containing Caucasian, African, and Asian mtDNA variants. Comparing these results with others previously reported from Agadir and Andalucia (Spain), we can conclude that Berber population is slightly more frequent in Tetouan than Oujda, whereas Subsaharian presence was higher in Agadir. Remarkably, the presence of Asian variant was increased in Oujda respect to Tetouan in agreement with historical data reporting a higher Arabic penetrance in Oujda than in Tetouan.

Keywords: Mitochondrial DNA; Haplogroups; North Morocco; Berbers