title: Genetic relationships of ethnic minorities in Southwest China revealed by microsatellite markers.
abstract: Population migrations in Southwest and South China have played an important role in the formation of East Asian populations and led to a high degree of cultural diversity among ethnic minorities living in these areas. To explore the genetic relationships of these ethnic minorities, we systematically surveyed the variation of 10 autosomal STR markers of 1,538 individuals from 30 populations of 25 ethnic minorities, of which the majority were chosen from Southwest China, especially Yunnan Province. With genotyped data of the markers, we constructed phylogenies of these populations with both D(A) and D(C) measures and performed a principal component analysis, as well as a clustering analysis by structure. Results showed that we successfully recovered the genetic structure of analyzed populations formed by historical migrations. Aggregation patterns of these populations accord well with their linguistic affiliations, suggesting that deciphering of genetic relationships does in fact offer clues for study of ethnic differentiation.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Hongbin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiaoqin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Keqin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Songnian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Jiayou
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Duen-Mei
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D002681:China; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005838:Genotype; D005843:Geography; D006579:Heterozygote; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008913:Minority Groups; D025341:Principal Component Analysis