Reduced Y-Chromosome, but Not Mitochondrial DNA, Diversity in Human Populations from West New Guinea

Abstract

To investigate the paternal population history of New Guinea, 183 individuals from 11 regional populations of West New Guinea (WNG) and 131 individuals from Papua New Guinea (PNG) were analyzed at 26 binary markers and seven short-tandem-repeat loci from the nonrecombining part of the human Y chromosome and were compared with 14 populations of eastern and southeastern Asia, Polynesia, and Australia. Y-chromosomal diversity was low in WNG compared with PNG and with most other populations from Asia/Oceania; a single haplogroup (M-M4) accounts for 75% of WNG Y chromosomes, and many WNG populations have just one Y haplogroup. Four Y-chromosomal lineages (haplogroups M-M4, C-M208, C-M38, and K-M230) account for 94% of WNG Y chromosomes and 78% of all Melanesian Y chromosomes and were identified to have most likely arisen in Melanesia. Haplogroup C-M208, which in WNG is restricted to the Dani and Lani, two linguistically closely related populations from the central and western highlands of WNG, was identified as the major Polynesian Y-chromosome lineage. A network analysis of associated Y-chromosomal short-tandem-repeat haplotypes suggests two distinct population expansions involving C-M208--one in New Guinea and one in Polynesia. The observed low levels of Y-chromosome diversity in WNG contrast with high levels of mtDNA diversity reported for the same populations. This most likely reflects extreme patrilocality and/or biased male reproductive success (polygyny). Our data further provide evidence for primarily female-mediated gene flow within the highlands of New Guinea but primarily male-mediated gene flow between highland and lowland/coastal regions.

Global patterns of human mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome structure are not influenced by higher migration rates of females versus males

“…This problem is exacerbated for Y chromosomes because they lack sequence diversity 5 . To accommodate this difficulty, Y-chromosome researchers have adopted a strategy [6][7][8][9] to estimate levels of between-group variation using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) discovered in small panels of globally diverse males and then genotyped in much larger population samples (e.g., the global data set 10 analyzed in ref. 1).…”

A Genetic Focus on the Peopling History of East Asia: Critical Views

“…An even younger estimate of 4,400 years before present (BP) was obtained for O-M122 in Balinese populations (Karafet et al 2005). -As the Munda exhibit a high frequency and diversity of Y chromosome M95 (O2a) haplotypes Kumar et al 2007;Reddy and Kumar 2008;Sengupta et al 2006;Su et al 2000Su et al , 1999, the origin of the Austroasiatic phylum has been claimed to occur in India around 65,000 years BP according to the age estimated for this haplogroup (Kumar et al 2007), by contrast to the young age of 8,800 years previously given by Kayser et al (2003). More recently, an age of about 20,000 years has been established for O-M95, resulting in an opposite interpretation: Austroasiatic populations would have a Southeast Asian origin, and those migrating to Northeast India would have extensively admixed with Indian populations (Chaubey et al 2011).…”

Human genetics of the Kula Ring: Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA variation in the Massim of Papua New Guinea

“…1,2 Previous studies have addressed human genetic variation in Oceania, particularly Polynesia, [3][4][5][6][7][8] mainland New Guinea [9][10][11][12][13] and Island Melanesia. [14][15][16][17][18] One area of Near Oceania (NO) yet understudied from a human genetic perspective is the island region off the southeastern tip of New Guinea (Figure 1).…”

“…The inhabitants of this region have been designated as Massim, [19][20][21] a term that has since been used to refer not only to the people but also to the geocultural region inhabited by them. 22 From the many islands of the Massim, only the Trobriand Islands were included in previous human genetic studies 4,7,11,16,23 Hence, a human genetic description of the Massim is lacking so far, despite the major attention they have received in the cultural anthropology literature, in particular with respect to the Kula, a traditional inter-island trading system described in more detail below.…”