title: Y-chromosome genotyping and genetic structure of Zhuang populations.
abstract: Zhuang, the largest ethnic minority population in China, is one of the descendant groups of the ancient Bai-Yue. Linguistically, Zhuang languages are grouped into northern and southern dialects. To characterize its genetic structure, 13 East Asian-specific Y-chromosome biallelic markers and 7 Y-chromosome short tandem repeat (STR) markers were used to infer the haplogroups of Zhuang populations. Our results showed that O*, O2a, and O1 are the predominant haplogroups in Zhuang. Frequency distribution and principal component analysis showed that Zhuang was closely related to groups of Bai-Yue origin and therefore was likely to be the descendant of Bai-Yue. The results of principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis contradicted the linguistically derived north-south division. Interestingly, a west-east clinal trend of haplotype frequency changes was observed, which was supported by AMOVA analysis that showed that between-population variance of east-west division was larger than that of north-south division. O* network suggested that the Hongshuihe branch was the center of Zhuang. Our study suggests that there are three major components in Zhuang. The O* and O2a constituted the original component; later, O1 was brought into Zhuang, especially eastern Zhuang; and finally, northern Han population brought O3 into the Zhuang populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhen-Dong
authors.initials: ZD
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Wen-Hong
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Wei-Xiong
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Rui-Xing
authors.initials: RX
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Shang-Ling
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Pan
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics*; D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y / Q000235:genetics*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics*; D005819:Genetic Markers / Q000235:genetics; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D025341:Principal Component Analysis
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers