Directional migration in the Hindu castes: inferences from mitochondrial, autosomal and Y-chromosomal data

Wooding, Stephen; Ostler, C.; Prasad, Binod; Watkins, W. Scott; Sung, Sandy; Bamshad, Mike; Jorde, Lynn B.

doi:10.1007/s00439-004-1130-x

Cited by 35 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition, there are several other religious communities contributing a fraction to the total Indian population structure. 6 The Hindu caste system has played a major role in the social and economic organization of India 10 and is constituted by four major classes (varna)-namely, Brahmin (priestly class), Kshatriya (warrior class), Vyasa (business class) and Shudra (menial labor class). 6 The fifth class, 'Panchama' (standing for tribals), was added at a later date, giving them the lowest rank.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Indian origin of paternal haplogroup R1a1* substantiates the autochthonous origin of Brahmins and the caste system

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many major rival models of the origin of the Hindu caste system co-exist despite extensive studies, each with associated genetic evidences. One of the major factors that has still kept the origin of the Indian caste system obscure is the unresolved question of the origin of Y-haplogroup R1a1*, at times associated with a male-mediated major genetic influx from Central Asia or Eurasia, which has contributed to the higher castes in India. Y-haplogroup R1a1* has a widespread distribution and high frequency across Eurasia, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, with scanty reports of its ancestral (R*, R1* and R1a*) and derived lineages (R1a1a, R1a1b and R1a1c). To resolve these issues, we screened 621 Y-chromosomes (of Brahmins occupying the upper-most caste position and schedule castes/tribals occupying the lower-most positions) with 55 Y-chromosomal binary markers and seven Y-microsatellite markers and compiled an extensive dataset of 2809 Y-chromosomes (681 Brahmins, and 2128 tribals and schedule castes) for conclusions. A peculiar observation of the highest frequency (up to 72.22%) of Yhaplogroup R1a1* in Brahmins hinted at its presence as a founder lineage for this caste group. Further, observation of R1a1* in different tribal population groups, existence of Y-haplogroup R1a* in ancestors and extended phylogenetic analyses of the pooled dataset of 530 Indians, 224 Pakistanis and 276 Central Asians and Eurasians bearing the R1a1* haplogroup supported the autochthonous origin of R1a1 lineage in India and a tribal link to Indian Brahmins. However, it is important to discover novel Y-chromosomal binary marker(s) for a higher resolution of R1a1* and confirm the present conclusions.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Indian origin of paternal haplogroup R1a1* substantiates the autochthonous origin of Brahmins and the caste system

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There is doubtless a geographic structure in human genome diversity; given a suffi cient number of markers, allelic differences can reach signifi cance between virtually any pairs of populations or groups thereof [15] , including populations separated by very few kilometers [17,34,35] . The broad regions of genetic similarity observed in all studies presumably result from shared ancestry of popula-tions that kept migrational contacts through most of their history.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genomic Boundaries between Human Populations

Barbujani¹,

Belle²

2006

Hum Hered

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Different authors disagree on whether human genome variation should be described as continuous or discontinuous; in the latter case, by attributing an individual’s genotype to one genetic cluster, one would also obtain information on the individual’s genome in general. An analysis of 377 microsatellites of the CEPH human diversity panel was interpreted as evidence that most genotypes cluster into one of five distinct groups, approximately corresponding to continents, which were pro- posed by some authors as the major biological subdivisions of humankind. Here we analyse the same dataset by a specific numerical method, designed to detect genomic boundaries, i.e. zones of increased change in maps of genomic variation. We show that statistically significant boundaries can be described between groups of populations, but different clusters are identified, depending on the assumptions of the model. In addition, these clusters do not correspond to the clusters inferred from previous analyses of the same or of other polymorphisms. We conclude that it is indeed possible to cluster genotypes according to geography, but no study so far identified unambiguously anything that can be regarded as a major genetic subdivision of humankind, and hence discontinuous models of human diversity are unsupported by data.

show abstract

“…Next, we calculated pairwise F ST between populations (Supplemental Table 1 A large proportion of individuals included in this study have been genotyped previously for other types of polymorphisms (Jorde et al 1997;Watkins et al 2003Watkins et al , 2005Wooding et al 2004). For these individuals, we examined the concordance of between-population genetic distances based on the high-density SNP data and other types of autosomal polymorphisms.…”

Section: Genetic Diversity Among Populations and Continental Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-scaled human genetic structure revealed by SNP microarrays

Xing¹,

Watkins²,

Witherspoon³

et al. 2009

Genome Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We report an analysis of more than 240,000 loci genotyped using the Affymetrix SNP microarray in 554 individuals from 27 worldwide populations in Africa, Asia, and Europe. To provide a more extensive and complete sampling of human genetic variation, we have included caste and tribal samples from two states in South India, Daghestanis from eastern Europe, and the Iban from Malaysia. Consistent with observations made by Charles Darwin, our results highlight shared variation among human populations and demonstrate that much genetic variation is geographically continuous. At the same time, principal components analyses reveal discernible genetic differentiation among almost all identified populations in our sample, and in most cases, individuals can be clearly assigned to defined populations on the basis of SNP genotypes. All individuals are accurately classified into continental groups using a model-based clustering algorithm, but between closely related populations, genetic and self-classifications conflict for some individuals. The 250K data permitted high-level resolution of genetic variation among Indian caste and tribal populations and between highland and lowland Daghestani populations. In particular, upper-caste individuals from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh form one defined group, lower-caste individuals from these two states form another, and the tribal Irula samples form a third. Our results emphasize the correlation of genetic and geographic distances and highlight other elements, including social factors that have contributed to population structure.

show abstract

Directional migration in the Hindu castes: inferences from mitochondrial, autosomal and Y-chromosomal data

Cited by 35 publications

References 33 publications

The Indian origin of paternal haplogroup R1a1* substantiates the autochthonous origin of Brahmins and the caste system

The Indian origin of paternal haplogroup R1a1* substantiates the autochthonous origin of Brahmins and the caste system

Genomic Boundaries between Human Populations

Fine-scaled human genetic structure revealed by SNP microarrays

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About