The genetic legacy of continental scale admixture in Indian Austroasiatic speakers

Abstract

Surrounded by speakers of Indo-European, Dravidian and Tibeto-Burman languages, around 11 million Munda (a branch of Austroasiatic language family) speakers live in the densely populated and genetically diverse South Asia. Their genetic makeup holds components characteristic of South Asians as well as Southeast Asians. The admixture time between these components has been previously estimated on the basis of archaeology, linguistics and uniparental markers. Using genome-wide genotype data of 102 Munda speakers and contextual data from South and Southeast Asia, we retrieved admixture dates between 2000–3800 years ago for different populations of Munda. The best modern proxies for the source populations for the admixture with proportions 0.29/0.71 are Lao people from Laos and Dravidian speakers from Kerala in India. The South Asian population(s), with whom the incoming Southeast Asians intermixed, had a smaller proportion of West Eurasian genetic component than contemporary proxies. Somewhat surprisingly Malaysian Peninsular tribes rather than the geographically closer Austroasiatic languages speakers like Vietnamese and Cambodians show highest sharing of IBD segments with the Munda. In addition, we affirmed that the grouping of the Munda speakers into North and South Munda based on linguistics is in concordance with genome-wide data.

Investigating the likely association between genetic ancestry and COVID-19 manifestations

“…The admixture between local South Asians and incoming Southeast Asians took place ~2000-3800 years ago giving rise to the AAA ancestry. Notably, the South Asian population(s) with whom the incoming Southeast Asians mingled were AASI related with little to no West Eurasian ancestry fraction [27]. Finally, it has been showed that the Tibeto-Burmans (ATBs) derived their ancestry through admixture with low-altitude East Asians who migrated from China and likely across Northern India or Myanmar [28] leading to the high genomic proximity between South Asians of ATB ancestry and East Asians.…”

Counting the paternal founders of Austroasiatic speakers associated with the language dispersal in South Asia

“…8,14 With the technological advancement, a much clearer picture has now emerged, showing a strong association of largely male mediated gene flow for the dispersal of Mundari speakers from Southeast Asia to South Asia. [14][15][16] The autosomal data showed a bidirectional geneflow between South and Southeast Asia. 14 In a recent genome-wide study of a large number of South and Southeast Asian populations, Dravidian speakers of Kerala and Lao speakers from Laos were found to be the best ancestral proxies for Mundari speakers.…”

“…14 In a recent genome-wide study of a large number of South and Southeast Asian populations, Dravidian speakers of Kerala and Lao speakers from Laos were found to be the best ancestral proxies for Mundari speakers. 15 The admixture dates for these ancestries were estimated to be between 2-3.8 kya. Moreover, this study also found clearcut genetic differentiation between North and South Munda groups 15 .…”

“…15 The admixture dates for these ancestries were estimated to be between 2-3.8 kya. Moreover, this study also found clearcut genetic differentiation between North and South Munda groups 15 .…”

“…The recent admixture time estimated through autosomal data has now narrowed down the arrival of Mundari ancestors to South Asia. 15 Therefore, a marker such as M95, which originated >12 kya, would not help us to understand the most recent founding lineages.…”