title: Dominant contribution of northern chinese to the paternal genetic structure of Chaoshanese in South China.
abstract: We investigated the Y chromosome of various Chinese populations to determine the patrilineal origin of the Chaoshanese population. Admixture analysis of six specific Y short tandem repeat (STR) loci in 6,292 individual samples taken from 51 populations, including Chaoshanese and Minnanese of our earlier studies, showed that over 85% of the Chaoshanese Y chromosomes were derived from the Central China Han (M (RH): 0.8614; M (BE): 1.1868 ± 0.2054), and a very small portion were from the southern aborigines. These results support a Central China Han origin of the Chaoshanese and additionally reveal that males from the Central China Han were the predominant contributor to the patrilineal genetics of the Chaoshanese. A phylogenetic tree and analysis of molecular variance signified a strong association between Y chromosomes of Chinese populations and their linguistic affiliations, revealing a coevolution of Y chromosome diversity and languages in East Asia.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology Laboratory, Shantou University Medical College, Guangdong, China. sphu@stu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Sheng-Ping
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Feng-Huan
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Li-Qun
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics*; D002681:China; D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y; D005787:Gene Frequency; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D010802:Phylogeny