title: Reconstructing the origin of Andaman Islanders.
abstract: The origin of the Andaman "Negrito" and Nicobar "Mongoloid" populations has been ambiguous. Our analyses of complete mitochondrial DNA sequences from Onges and Great Andaman populations revealed two deeply branching clades that share their most recent common ancestor in founder haplogroup M, with lineages spread among India, Africa, East Asia, New Guinea, and Australia. This distribution suggests that these two clades have likely survived in genetic isolation since the initial settlement of the islands during an out-of-Africa migration by anatomically modern humans. In contrast, Nicobarese sequences illustrate a close genetic relationship with populations from Southeast Asia.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad-500 007, India.
authors.forename: Kumarasamy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thangaraj
authors.forename: Gyaneshwer
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chaubey
authors.forename: Toomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kivisild
authors.forename: Alla G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Vijay Kumar
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Avinash A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Rasalkar
authors.forename: Lalji
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D001208:Asia; D001210:Asia, Southeastern; D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y / Q000235:genetics; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics*; D018703:Founder Effect; D040961:Genetic Drift; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D009154:Mutation; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial