 In recent years efforts have been made by various genetic researchers, both in Lebanon and abroad, to identify the ancestral origins of the Lebanese people, their relationship to each other, and to other neighbouring and distant human populations.Like most DNA studies that attempt to identify a population's origins and migration patterns in the region that may have influenced the genetic make-up—these studies have focused on two human genome segments, the Y chromosome (inherited only by males and passed only by fathers) and mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA, which passes only from mother to child).Both segments are unaffected by recombination, thus they provide an indicator of paternal and maternal origins, respectively.