May 25, 2010

mtDNA of Gelao from Southwest China

Forensic Sci Int Genet. 2010 May 20. [Epub ahead of print]

Mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms in Gelao ethnic group residing in Southwest China.

Liu C, Wang SY, Zhao M, Xu ZY, Hu YH, Chen F, Zhang RZ, Gao GF, Yu YS, Kong QP.

Abstract

Gelao ethnic group, an aboriginal population residing in southwest China, has undergone a long and complex evolutionary process. To investigate the genetic structure of this ancient ethnic group, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphisms of 102 Gelao individuals were collected and analyzed in this study. With the aid of the information extracted from control-region hypervariable segments (HVSs) I and II as well as some necessary coding-region segments, phylogenetic status of all mtDNAs under study were determined by means of classifying into various defined haplogroups. The southern-prevalent haplogroups B, R9, and M7 account for 45.1% of the gene pool, whereas northern-prevalent haplogroups A, D, G, N9, and M8 consist of 39.2%. Haplogroup distribution indicates that the Gelao bears signatures of southern populations and possesses some regional characters. In the PC map, Gelao clusters together with populations with Bai-Yue tribe origin as well as the local Han and the Miao. The results demonstrate the complexity of Gelao population and the data can well supplement the China mtDNA database.

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1 comment:

andrew said...

So that's 84.3% in "common" haplotypes associated with the North or the South of China. That leaves 15.7% of "other" which is a pretty big gap when there isn't any obvious third source of mtDNA lines to draw from.

This is suggestive of a quite complex genetic history, or a rare (for Asia) non-bottleneck situation.