A crypto‐Dravidian origin for the nontribal communities of South India based on human leukocyte antigen class I diversity

Abstract

The Dravidian communities are considered to be the original inhabitants of India, now restricted to South India. The southern most state, Kerala, is socio-culturally stratified into Hindus, Muslims and Christians on the basis of religion. The origin of these religious communities in Kerala is considered to be unique in comparison with that in other parts of the country. These communities were later influenced by the hierarchical caste structure established by the Hindu Brahmins. In the present study, we compared six nontribal (Namboothiri, Nair, Ezhava, Pulaya, Malabar Muslim and Syrian Christian) communities belonging to the major religious groups in Kerala (Hindu, Muslim and Christian) based on the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A, -B and -C diversity. Our aim was to understand the genomic substructuring associated with the changing social scenario in various caste and religious groups and compare it with the Dravidian tribal and other world populations. The present study reveals that the HLA diversity of the Dravidian communities is very distinct from that in the other world populations. It is obvious that the nontribal communities of Kerala display a greater Dravidian influence, but traces of genetic admixture with the Mediterranean, western European, central Asian and East Asian populations can be observed. This characterizes the crypto-Dravidian features of the nontribal communities of Kerala. Demic diffusion of the local progressive communities with the migrant communities may have given rise to crypto-Dravidian features among the nontribal communities of Kerala.

DNA Methyl Transferase (DNMT) Gene Polymorphisms Could Be a Primary Event in Epigenetic Susceptibility to Schizophrenia

“…Subject selection based on Malayalam speaking ethnicity also indicated that the populations were genetically stratified. In an earlier study we have reported that Malayalam speaking ethnic communities are genetically distinct from the north Indian communities [30]. While comparing the associated allele and genotype distributions of DNMT1 with the HapMap population we do observe distinct variations within the Indian population i.e Gujarati Indian and South Indian population.…”

Human Leukocyte Antigen: Class I Allele Frequencies and Haplotype Distributionin a Tertiary Care Hospital in Bangladesh

“…25 Higher frequency of HLA A2, the third highest frequent allele in our study, has been reported in populations including Caucasians (28%), Russians (26%), South Indians, Kerala Hindu population (25%), and Turks (29%). [29][30][31][32] A33 the fourth frequent allele in our study, was the most frequent allele in a previous study from Bangladesh.…”

Genetic Association Analysis of ATP Binding Cassette Protein Family Reveals a Novel Association of ABCB1 Genetic Variants with Epilepsy Risk, but Not with Drug-Resistance

“…It is known that ethnically different population exhibit marked variation in the allele frequency distribution of SNPs and also linkage disequilibrium patterns. To avoid genetic heterogeneity among study subjects we selected Malayalam-speaking genetically homogenous Dravidian populations of Kerala, which has been reported to be genetically distinct from north Indian and other world populations [ 40 ]. This ethno-geographical differences in allele frequency distribution is further evident where C allele and CC genotype was associated with drug resistance in Caucasians [ 10 ] while alternate TT genotype has been implicated in drug resistance in Japanese and Chinese population [ 41 ], [ 42 ].…”