Y-chromosome evidence suggests a common paternal heritage of Austro-Asiatic populations.
BACKGROUND
The Austro-Asiatic linguistic family, which is considered to be the oldest of all the families in India, has a substantial presence in Southeast Asia. However, the possibility of any genetic link among the linguistic sub-families of the Indian Austro-Asiatics on the one hand and between the Indian and the Southeast Asian Austro-Asiatics on the other has not been explored till now. Therefore, to trace the origin and historic expansion of Austro-Asiatic groups of India, we analysed Y-chromosome SNP and STR data of the 1222 individuals from 25 Indian populations, covering all the three branches of Austro-Asiatic tribes, viz. Mundari, Khasi-Khmuic and Mon-Khmer, along with the previously published data on 214 relevant populations from Asia and Oceania.


RESULTS
Our results suggest a strong paternal genetic link, not only among the subgroups of Indian Austro-Asiatic populations but also with those of Southeast Asia. However, maternal link based on mtDNA is not evident. The results also indicate that the haplogroup O-M95 had originated in the Indian Austro-Asiatic populations ~65,000 yrs BP (95% C.I. 25,442-132,230) and their ancestors carried it further to Southeast Asia via the Northeast Indian corridor. Subsequently, in the process of expansion, the Mon-Khmer populations from Southeast Asia seem to have migrated and colonized Andaman and Nicobar Islands at a much later point of time.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings are consistent with the linguistic evidence, which suggests that the linguistic ancestors of the Austro-Asiatic populations have originated in India and then migrated to Southeast Asia.
Kumar
Vikrant
V
Molecular Anthropology Group, Biological Anthropology Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Hubsiguda, Hyderabad, India. vikranttibriwal@yahoo.com <vikranttibriwal@yahoo.com>
Reddy
Arimanda N S
AN
Babu
Jagedeesh P
JP
Rao
Tipirisetti N
TN
Langstieh
Banrida T
BT
Thangaraj
Kumarasamy
K
Reddy
Alla G
AG
Singh
Lalji
L
Reddy
Battini M
BM
D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics*; D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
D005819:Genetic Markers