In human genetics, Y-chromosomal Adam (Y-mrca) is the patrilinear human most recent common ancestor, from whom all Y chromosomes in living humans are descended. Y-chromosomal Adam is thus the male counterpart of Mitochondrial Eve (the mt-mrca), the matrilinear human most recent common ancestor, from whom all mitochondrial DNA in living humans is descended.

They are named after the "Adam" and "Eve" in Genesis as a metaphor only, and are not considered to be the first humans. Also note that the Y-mrca is not the same individual at all points in human history: The Y-mrca of all humans alive today is different from the one for humans alive at some point in the remote past or future: as male lines die out, a more recent individual becomes the new Y-mrca. In times of rapid population growth, patrilinear lines are less likely to die out than during a population bottleneck.

The Y-chromosomal Adam for living humans probably lived between 60,000 and 90,000 years ago, judging from molecular clock and genetic marker studies. While their descendants certainly became close intimates, Y-chromosomal Adam and mitochondrial Eve are separated by at least 30,000 years, or many hundred generations.

The more recent age of the Y-mrca compared to the mt-mrca corresponds to a larger statistical dispersion of the probability distribution for a paleolithic man to have living descendants compared to that of a paleolithic woman. While fertile women had more or less equally distributed chances of giving birth to a certain number of fertile descendants, chances for fertile men varied more widely, with some fathering no children and others fathering many, with multiple women.

See also

• Y chromosome
• Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups
• Single-origin hypothesis
• Adam's Curse (book by Bryan Sykes)
• Genetic genealogy
• Mitochondrial Eve
• Most recent common ancestor
• Y-chromosomal Aaron

References

• "Modern Men Trace Ancestry to African Migrants", A Gibbons, Volume 292, Number 5519, Issue of 11 May 2001, pp. 1051-1052.
• "African Origin of Modern Humans in East Asia: A Tale of 12,000 Y Chromosomes", Yuehai Ke et al, Science 2001 292: 1151-1153
• Fazale Rana and Ross, Hugh, Who Was Adam: A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Man, 2005, ISBN 1-576-83577-4

External links

• Documentary Redraws Humans' Family Tree (from National Geographic)
• Y-Chromosome Biallelic Haplogroups

Human evolution | DNA | Genetic genealogy

Adam des Y-Chromosoms | Y-cromosoma Adan | Y-chromosomale Adam