Paternal Population History of East Asia: Sources, Patterns, and Microevolutionary Processes

Abstract

Asia has served as a focal point for human migration during much of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Clarification of East Asia's role as a source and/or transit point for human dispersals requires that this region's own settlement history be understood. To this end, we examined variation at 52 polymorphic sites on the nonrecombining portion of the Y chromosome (NRY) in 1,383 unrelated males, representing 25 populations from southern East Asia (SEAS), northern East Asia (NEAS), and central Asia (CAS). The polymorphisms defined 45 global haplogroups, 28 of which were present in these three regions. Although heterozygosity levels were similar in all three regions, the average pairwise difference among haplogroups was noticeably smaller in SEAS. Multidimensional scaling analysis indicated a general separation of SEAS versus NEAS and CAS populations, and analysis of molecular variance produced very different values of Phi(ST) in NEAS and SEAS populations. In spatial autocorrelation analyses, the overall correlogram exhibited a clinal pattern; however, the NEAS populations showed evidence of both isolation by distance and ancient clines, whereas there was no evidence of structure in SEAS populations. Nested cladistic analysis demonstrated that population history events and ongoing demographic processes both contributed to the contrasting patterns of NRY variation in NEAS and SEAS. We conclude that the peopling of East Asia was more complex than earlier models had proposed-that is, a multilayered, multidirectional, and multidisciplinary framework is necessary. For instance, in addition to the previously recognized genetic and dental dispersal signals from SEAS to NEAS populations, CAS has made a significant contribution to the contemporary gene pool of NEAS, and the Sino-Tibetan expansion has left traces of a genetic trail from northern to southern China.

Evolution and migration history of the Chinese population inferred from Chinese Y-chromosome evidence

“…1a). This agrees with, but also expands on, previous studies that only reported haplogroup O in smaller Chinese samples Karafet et al 2001;Wells et al 2001).…”

“…For this study we analyzed a total of 4,601 men representing 199 populations/locations from China, Northeast Asia (NE.Asia), South Asia (S.Asia) and Central Asia (C.Asia) including sources surveyed in Su et al (2000), Underhill et al (2000), Karafet et al (2001), Wells et al (2001), Zerjal et al (2002), in addition to 76 new samples collected throughout China. We used the nested cladistic analysis (Templeton et al 1995) to explain any statistically significant association between haplogroups and geography in terms of inferred effects of population history (e.g., contiguous range expansion, long distance colonization and fragmentation) and/or population structure (e.g., recurrent gene flow restricted by IBD and long distance dispersal).…”

“…1a). extensive data set (Su et al 2000;Underhill et al 2000;Karafet et al 2001;Wells et al 2001;Zerjal et al 2002;and our work). …”

“…Studies of the geographical and ethnical structure of phylogeny lead to the well-known ''out-of-Africa'' hypothesis of modern human evolution and the subsequent peopling of the entire world. New binary markers allow for the construction of more robust genetic phylogenies than before (Underhill et al 1996;Hammer et al 1998;Karafet et al 1999;Su et al 1999Su et al , 2000Thomson et al 2000;Underhill et al 2000;Hammer et al 2001;Karafet et al 2001;Underhill et al 2001;Wells et al 2001;Lell et al 2002;Qamar et al 2002;Tajima et al 2002;Zerjal et al 2002).…”

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

“…7,9,12,21,23,24,29 as well as for other population groups, mainly from Central Asia, Eurasia and Southeast Asia. 9,23,[30][31][32][33][34] Sample collection and DNA isolation About 2 ml of venous blood was collected from each individual, with their informed written consent and the approval of Jawaharlal Nehru University ethical committee. DNA was isolated from the samples by the standard protocol used in the laboratory.…”