title: Genetic affinities of the central Indian tribal populations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The central Indian state Madhya Pradesh is often called as 'heart of India' and has always been an important region functioning as a trinexus belt for three major language families (Indo-European, Dravidian and Austroasiatic). There are less detailed genetic studies on the populations inhabited in this region. Therefore, this study is an attempt for extensive characterization of genetic ancestries of three tribal populations, namely; Bharia, Bhil and Sahariya, inhabiting this region using haploid and diploid DNA markers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mitochondrial DNA analysis showed high diversity, including some of the older sublineages of M haplogroup and prominent R lineages in all the three tribes. Y-chromosomal biallelic markers revealed high frequency of Austroasiatic-specific M95-O2a haplogroup in Bharia and Sahariya, M82-H1a in Bhil and M17-R1a in Bhil and Sahariya. The results obtained by haploid as well as diploid genetic markers revealed strong genetic affinity of Bharia (a Dravidian speaking tribe) with the Austroasiatic (Munda) group. The gene flow from Austroasiatic group is further confirmed by their Y-STRs haplotype sharing analysis, where we determined their founder haplotype from the North Munda speaking tribe, while, autosomal analysis was largely in concordant with the haploid DNA results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Bhil exhibited largely Indo-European specific ancestry, while Sahariya and Bharia showed admixed genetic package of Indo-European and Austroasiatic populations. Hence, in a landscape like India, linguistic label doesn't unequivocally follow the genetic footprints.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Government Motilal Vigyan Mahavidyalaya, Bhopal, India.
authors.forename: Gunjan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tamang
authors.forename: Ruchira
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chaudhary
authors.forename: Vipin Kumar
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Anish M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Sharath
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Anugula
authors.forename: Deepa Selvi
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Rani
authors.forename: Alla G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Muthukrishnan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eaaswarkhanth
authors.forename: Gyaneshwer
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chaubey
authors.forename: Lalji
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Kumarasamy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thangaraj
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D004171:Diploidy; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005819:Genetic Markers / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D005843:Geography; D006238:Haploidy; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010802:Phylogeny; D025341:Principal Component Analysis
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D005819:Genetic Markers