Male-Dominated Migration and Massive Assimilation of Indigenous East Asians in the Formation of Muslim Hui People in Southwest China

Abstract

The origin and diversification of Muslim Hui people in China via demic or simple cultural diffusion is a long-going debate. We here generated genome-wide data at nearly 700,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 45 Hui and 14 Han Chinese individuals collected from Guizhou province in southwest China. We applied principal component analysis (PCA), ADMIXTURE, f-statistics, qpWave, and qpAdm analysis to infer the population genetic structure and admixture history. Our results revealed the Guizhou Hui people have a limited amount of West Eurasian related ancestry at a proportion of 6%, but show massive genetic assimilation with indigenous southern Han Chinese and Tibetan or Tungusic/Mongolic related northern East Asians. We also detected a high frequency of North Asia or Central Asia related paternal Y-chromosome but not maternal mtDNA lineages in Guizhou Hui. Our observation supports the cultural diffusion has played a vital role in the formation of Hui people and the migration of Hui people to southwest China was probably a sex-biased male-driven process.

Demographic model and biological adaptation inferred from the genome-wide SNP data reveal tripartite origins of southernmost Chinese Huis

“…For example, statistically negative f 4 (Western Eurasians, Eastern Eurasians; SYH, Mbuti) quantitatively illuminated SYH people shared more alleles with East Asians and Southeast Asians compared with Western Eurasians, which was consistent with the higher estimated Eastern Eurasian-related ancestry proportion in the qpAdm and qpGraph models. Recent genetic studies based on the central Guizhou and Sichuan Huis, northwestern Ningxia, and Xinjiang Huis also showed eastern Eurasian affinity of their studied Hui people (Liu et al, 2021b;Ma et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2020a). Taken together, we concluded that geographically different Chinese Hui people derived their primary ancestry from East Asians although they remain unique Islam culture and dietary habits.…”

“…We not only identified a significant genetic differentiation between SYH and central Chinese Hui people from Guizhou and Sichuan but also found the differentiated genetic admixture history between SYH people and indigenous Hainan Tai-Kadai populations and Vietnam Cham people. Our findings reported here suggested the more complex landscape of the demographic history of Chinese Hui people than previously reported two-source admixture models (Liu et al, 2021b;Ma et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2020a) and provided insights into the formation of southernmost Hui people, which was formed via a mixture of tripartite sources from EA, CV and CSA.…”

“…These identified sex-specific contributions from paternal and maternal legacy demonstrated that the general admixture process of SYH was sex-biased with an excess of Southeast Asian indigenous males and East Asian females. Previous studies based on whole-genome sequencing, genome-wide SNPs, Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial loci also have shown the sex-based admixture process in Hui people (Liu et al, 2021b;Ma et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2020a). It is interesting to find that the genetic contribution from Cham people to SYH was mediated via females.…”

“…They also identified strong genetic affinity among Ningxia and Xinjiang Huis and Dungan people, consistent with their common pattern of migration and admixture processes (Ma et al, 2021). Additionally, these three genetic analyses have evidenced the existence of the sex-biased male-driven admixture in central and northwestern Chinese Hui people (Liu et al, 2021b;Ma et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2020a). In general, the genomic diversity of geographically different Hui groups implies the complex interplay between eastern and western Eurasians.…”

The genomic formation of Tanka people, an isolated 'Gypsies in water' in the coastal region of Southeast China

“…We subsequently explored the genetic similarities and differences within and between Tanka people and their adjacent East Asians(Chen et al, 2021; He et al, 2021; Y. Liu et al, 2021; Lu et al, 2020; Jin Sun et al, 2020; Q. Wang et al, 2020; Yao et al, 2021) based on the genetic variants of denser SNP data (approximately 700K).…”