Genomic Insight Into the Population Admixture History of Tungusic-Speaking Manchu People in Northeast China

Abstract

Manchu is the third-largest ethnic minority in China and has the largest population size among the Tungusic-speaking groups. However, the genetic origin and admixture history of the Manchu people are far from clear due to the sparse sampling and a limited number of markers genotyped. Here, we provided the first batch of genome-wide data of genotyping approximate 700,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 93 Manchu individuals collected from northeast China. We merged the newly generated data with data of publicly available modern and ancient East Asians to comprehensively characterize the genetic diversity and fine-scale population structure, as well as explore the genetic origin and admixture history of northern Chinese Manchus. We applied both descriptive methods of ADMIXTURE, fineSTRUCTURE, FST, TreeMix, identity by decedent (IBD), principal component analysis (PCA), and qualitative f-statistics (f3, f4, qpAdm, and qpWave). We found that Liaoning Manchus have a close genetic relationship and significant admixture signal with northern Han Chinese, which is in line with the cluster patterns in the haplotype-based results. Additionally, the qpAdm-based admixture models showed that modern Manchu people were formed as major ancestry related to Yellow River farmers and minor ancestry linked to ancient populations from Amur River Bain, or others. In summary, the northeastern Chinese Manchu people in Liaoning were an exception to the coherent genetic structure of Tungusic-speaking populations, probably due to the large-scale population migrations and genetic admixtures in the past few hundred years.

Forensic Characteristics and Genetic Background Dissections of Chinese Manchu and Zhuang Groups Using 59 Autosomal Diallelic InDels and 2 miniSTRs

“…Although CMI and CHB groups belong to different language families, the two groups still demonstrated a close genetic relationship in multiple statistical analyses, which was highly consistent with the results of previous population genetic studies involving the Manchu group and northern Han populations from Liaoning, Henan and Beijing provinces [15,19,20]. With the development of Chinese society and economy, intermarriages between the abovementioned groups have become more common [43], and the Manchu-Han intermarriage rate in Liaoning province reached 39.3% in the riverside area as early as 2002 [20]. Many population genetic studies about Chinese Manchu based on Y-SNPs indicated that the Y chromosome haplogroup C3* and its descendant 'Manchu cluster' C3b2a-M48 expanded approximately 1333 ± 653 or 590 ± 340 years ago due to nomadic activities of Jurchens [44][45][46] and the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, resulting in the wide distributions of these haplogroups in the paternal lineages of the Chinese populations.…”

Genomic Insights Into the Genetic Structure and Natural Selection of Mongolians

“…The proportion of Neolithic hunter-gatherers contributing to Mongolian subgroups increased with the genetic affinity with Mongols; in contrast, the ancestry of Neolithic farmers dedicated to Mongolian subgroups increased with the genetic affinity with Han. The derived Eastern Eurasian ancestry (ANA) from a gene pool was similar to contemporary Tungusic speakers from Amur River Basin, suggesting a genetic connection among the speakers of languages belonging to the Altaic macrofamily (Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic language families) ( Yunusbayev et al, 2015 ; Pugach et al, 2016 ; Chen et al, 2021 ; Zhang et al, 2021 ). The genetic connection of Mongolic and Tungusic populations was also shown in a similar pattern of the paternal Y chromosomes ( Huang et al, 2018a ; Huang et al, 2018b ; Wen et al, 2019 ; Wei et al, 2018a ; Yan et al, 2015 ; Wei et al, 2018b ).…”

Systematic selections and forensic application evaluations of 111 individual identification SNPs in the Chinese Inner Mongolia Manchu group

“…As a minority nationality, the Manchu group once established the Jin Dynasty and Qing Dynasty in 1,115–1,234 and 1,644-1910, respectively ( He and Guo, 2013 ). Under the influence of long historical process and social development, Manchu ancestors, who originated near the Changbai mountains in northeast China, constantly communicated with the surrounding Han, Mongolian, Hezhe, Xibe, and other ethnic groups through intermarriage ( Zhang et al, 2021 ).…”