Molecular Genetic Analysis of Remains of a 2,000-Year-Old Human Population in China—and Its Relevance for the Origin of the Modern Japanese Population

Abstract

We extracted DNA from the human remains excavated from the Yixi site ( approximately 2,000 years before the present) in the Shandong peninsula of China and, through PCR amplification, determined nucleotide sequences of their mitochondrial D-loop regions. Nucleotide diversity of the ancient Yixi people was similar to those of modern populations. Modern humans in Asia and the circum-Pacific region are divided into six radiation groups, on the basis of the phylogenetic network constructed by means of 414 mtDNA types from 1, 298 individuals. We compared the ancient Yixi people with the modern Asian and the circum-Pacific populations, using two indices: frequency distribution of the radiation groups and genetic distances among populations. Both revealed that the closest genetic relatedness is between the ancient Yixi people and the modern Taiwan Han Chinese. The Yixi people show closer genetic affinity with Mongolians, mainland Japanese, and Koreans than with Ainu and Ryukyu Japanese and less genetic resemblance with Jomon people and Yayoi people, their predecessors and contemporaries, respectively, in ancient Japan.

Non-metric dental trait variation among local sites and regional groups of the Neolithic Jomon period, Japan

“…The origin of the Jomon people is complicated by the variety of different research methods that have been used. Some cranial and dental studies have led researchers to posit that these populations derived from Southeast Asia (Turner, 1976(Turner, , 1989(Turner, , 1990(Turner, , 1992Hanihara, 1990Hanihara, , 1992aHanihara, , b, 1993Matsumura, 1994Matsumura, , 1995bMatsumura, , 2000aMatsumura and Hudson, 2005) and mitocondorial DNA analysis (Horai et al, 1991), while other studies based on genetic comparisons have suggested a Northeast Asian origin (Omoto, 1995;Omoto and Saitou, 1997;Oota et al, 1999). In the meantime, the distinctiveness of their non-metric cranial traits has obscured the possible ancestry of the Jomon (Shigematsu et al, 2004).…”

The history of human populations in the Japanese Archipelago inferred from genome-wide SNP data with a special reference to the Ainu and the Ryukyuan populations

“…Because of technical difficulties, most of the ancient DNA data available regarding the origin of peoples in the Japanese Archipelago are mitochondrial DNAs, [63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71] with exceptions of the ABCC11 gene 72 and the ABO blood group gene. 73 If the genome-wide nuclear DNA polymorphism data can be obtained for ancient DNA samples found from the Japanese Archipelago, we will be able to have a much wider scope on the history of peoples in this Archipelago.…”

Mitochondrial DNA analysis of Yayoi period human skeletal remains from the Doigahama site

“…73,74 Many previous studies have been carried out on the control region sequence types of ancient populations that existed geographically close to the Doigahama Yayoi population, such as the northern Kyushu Yayoi and the ancient Chinese populations. 52,[75][76][77] In this study, we analyzed the control region for examining the genetic structure of the Doigahama Yayoi population. As a preliminary analysis of the phylogenetic relationships of the Doigahama Yayoi population, the HVI sequence types obtained in this study were compared with those of the northern Kyushu Yayoi, modern Japanese and ancient Chinese populations that have previously been reported by other researchers, and a phylogenetic network was constructed to outline the phylogenetic characteristics of the Doigahama Yayoi population.…”

“…76 The segments from the 35 specimens from the Kuma-Nishioda Yayoi site in northern Kyushu 52 and 50 modern Japanese specimens 57 were added as objects of comparison in the Japanese archipelago. Moreover, segments from 13 specimens from the 2500-year-old Linzi population (Shandong province, China) 77 and 34 specimens from the 2000-yearold Linzi population 75 were added as East-Asian populations contemporary with the Yayoi populations (Figure 2).…”