title: Mitochondrial genome evidence reveals successful Late Paleolithic settlement on the Tibetan Plateau.
abstract: Due to its numerous environmental extremes, the Tibetan Plateau--the world's highest plateau--is one of the most challenging areas of modern human settlement. Archaeological evidence dates the earliest settlement on the plateau to the Late Paleolithic, while previous genetic studies have traced the colonization event(s) to no earlier than the Neolithic. To explore whether the genetic continuity on the plateau has an exclusively Neolithic time depth, we studied mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome variation within 6 regional Tibetan populations sampled from Tibet and neighboring areas. Our results confirm that the vast majority of Tibetan matrilineal components can trace their ancestry to Epipaleolithic and Neolithic immigrants from northern China during the mid-Holocene. Significantly, we also identified an infrequent novel haplogroup, M16, that branched off directly from the Eurasian M founder type. Its nearly exclusive distribution in Tibetan populations and ancient age (>21 kya) suggest that M16 may represent the genetic relics of the Late Paleolithic inhabitants on the plateau. This partial genetic continuity between the Paleolithic inhabitants and the contemporary Tibetan populations bridges the results and inferences from archaeology, history, and genetics.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, Yunnan Province, China.
authors: Mian
authors: M
authors: Zhao
authors: Qing-Peng
authors: QP
authors: Kong
authors: Hua-Wei
authors: HW
authors: Wang
authors: Min-Sheng
authors: MS
authors: Peng
authors: Xiao-Dong
authors: XD
authors: Xie
authors: Wen-Zhi
authors: WZ
authors: Wang
authors: Jiayang
authors: Jian-Guo
authors: JG
authors: Duan
authors: Ming-Cui
authors: MC
authors: Cai
authors: Shi-Neng
authors: SN
authors: Zhao
authors: Cidanpingcuo
authors: Yuan-Quan
authors: YQ
authors: Tu
authors: Shi-Fang
authors: SF
authors: Wu
authors: Yong-Gang
authors: YG
authors: Yao
authors: Hans-Jürgen
authors: HJ
authors: Bandelt
authors: Ya-Ping
authors: YP
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002681:China; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D018703:Founder Effect; D014644:Genetic Variation; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010163:Paleontology; D018609:Tibet