However, a Rootsi, Behar, et al. study published online in "Nature Communications" in December 2013 disputed the previous conclusion. Based on its research into 16 whole R1 sequences, the team determined that a set of 19 unique nucleotide substitutions defines the Ashkenazi R1a lineage. One of these, the M582 mutation, is not found among Eastern Europeans, but the marker was present "in all sampled R1a Ashkenazi Levites, as well as in 33.8% of other R1a Ashkenazi Jewish males, and 5.9% of 303 R1a Near Eastern males, where it shows considerably higher diversity." Rootsi, Behar, et al., concluded that this marker most likely originates in the pre-Diasporic Hebrews in the Near East.