title: Phylogenetic relationship of the populations within and around Japan using 105 short tandem repeat polymorphic loci.
abstract: We have analyzed 105 autosomal polymorphic short tandem repeat (STR) loci for nine East and South-eastern Asian populations (two Japanese, five Han Chinese, Thai, and Burmese populations) and a Caucasian population using a multiplex PCR typing system. All the STR loci are genomewide tetranucleotide repeat markers of which the total number of observed alleles and the observed heterozygosity were 756 and 0.743, respectively, for Japanese populations. Phylogenetic analysis for these allele frequency data suggested that the Japanese populations are more closely related with southern Chinese populations than central and/or northern ones. STRUCTURE program analysis revealed the almost clearly divided and accountable population structure at K=2-6, that the two Japanese populations always formed one group separated from the other populations and never belong to different groups at K> or =3. Furthermore, our new allele frequency data for 91 loci were analyzed with those for 52 worldwide populations published by previous studies. Phylogenetic and multidimensional scaling (MDS) analyses indicated that Asian populations with large population size (six Han Chinese, three Japanese, two Southeast Asia) formed one distinct cluster and are closer to each other than other ethnic minorities in east and Southeast Asia. This pattern may be the caviar of comparing populations with greatly differing population sizes when STR loci were analyzed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Legal Medicine and Bioethics, Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan. yamachan@med.nagoya-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Shi-Lin
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Toshimichi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yoshimoto
authors.forename: Rieko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Uchihi
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mizutani
authors.forename: Yukihide
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kurimoto
authors.forename: Katsushi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tokunaga
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Yoshinao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Katsumata
authors.forename: Naruya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Saitou
mesh_terms: D001210:Asia, Southeastern; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics; D005202:Asia, Eastern; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics