Ascertaining the role of Taiwan as a source for the Austronesian expansion

Abstract

Taiwanese aborigines have been deemed the ancestors of Austronesian speakers which are currently distributed throughout two-thirds of the globe. As such, understanding their genetic distribution and diversity as well as their relationship to mainland Asian groups is important to consolidating the numerous models that have been proposed to explain the dispersal of Austronesian speaking peoples into Oceania. To better understand the role played by the aboriginal Taiwanese in this diaspora, we have analyzed a total of 451 individuals belonging to nine of the tribes currently residing in Taiwan, namely the Ami, Atayal, Bunun, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiyat, Tsou, and the Yami from Orchid Island off the coast of Taiwan across 15 autosomal short tandem repeat loci. In addition, we have compared the genetic profiles of these tribes to populations from mainland China as well as to collections at key points throughout the Austronesian domain. While our results suggest that Daic populations from Southern China are the likely forefathers of the Taiwanese aborigines, populations within Taiwan show a greater genetic impact on groups at the extremes of the current domain than populations from Indonesia, Mainland, or Southeast Asia lending support to the "Out of Taiwan" hypothesis. We have also observed that specific Taiwanese aboriginal groups (Paiwan, Puyuma, and Saisiyat), and not all tribal populations, have highly influenced genetic distributions of Austronesian populations in the pacific and Madagascar suggesting either an asymmetric migration out of Taiwan or the loss of certain genetic signatures in some of the Taiwanese tribes due to endogamy, isolation, and/or drift.

A holistic picture of Austronesian migrations revealed by phylogeography of Pacific paper mulberry

“…Additionally, the distribution of cp-17 mainly in SW and SE Taiwan (Fig. 1) also concurs with recent human genetic studies indicating that only the southern tribes of the Formosan aborigines had been involved in the initial out of Taiwan expansion (11). Given this, it is expected that cp-17 should be detected in the Philippines, as the archipelago is the first stepping stone of the out of Taiwan expansion.…”

“…Because Oceanic samples carrying cp-17 were all collected from asexually propagated plantations and private/abandoned gardens for tapa making (28)(29)(30), the dominance of cp-17 also complies with the expectation of its clonal nature in Near and Remote Oceania (20,31). Taken together, our dataset strongly supports a human-mediated dispersal of the Oceanic paper mulberry and its origin in Taiwan, a scenario highly congruent with the "out of Taiwan" hypothesis of Austronesian expansion (3,4,11). Additionally, the distribution of cp-17 mainly in SW and SE Taiwan (Fig.…”

“…Linguistic, archaeological, and genetic studies have demonstrated the complex nature of the process, where different components that helped to shape Lapita culture in Near Oceania each have their own unique history (1)(2)(3). Important evidence points to Taiwan as an Austronesian ancestral homeland with a more distant origin in South China (S China) (3,4,(9)(10)(11)(12), whereas alternative models suggest S China to North Vietnam (N Vietnam) (7) or a Southeast Asian (SE Asian) origin based mainly on human genetic data (5). The complexity of the subject is further manifested by models theorizing how different spheres of interaction with Near Oceanic indigenous populations during Austronesian migrations have contributed to the origin of Lapita culture (1)(2)(3), ranging from the "Express Train" model, assuming fast migrations from S China/Taiwan to Polynesia with limited interaction (4), to the models of "Slow Boat" (5) or "Voyaging Corridor Triple I," in which "Intrusion" of slower Austronesian migrations plus the "Integration" with indigenous Near Oceanic cultures had resulted in the "Innovation" of the Lapita cultural complex (2,13).…”

Taiwan Y-chromosomal DNA variation and its relationship with Island Southeast Asia

“…Note that the sum of parental contribution sums to one. The greatest estimate of mγ determines the greater contributor [69]. For lineage sharing [53] the contribution also sums to one.…”

New insights from Thailand into the maternal genetic history of Mainland Southeast Asia

“…Although genetic relatedness between TK and AN groups has been previously studied (Dancause et al, 2009;Mirabal et al, 2013;Kutanan et al, 2017), this is the first study to use simulations to select the best-fitting model. Our results support the genetic relatedness of TK and AN groups, which might reflect a postulated shared ancestry among the proto-Austronesian populations of coastal East Asia (Bellwood, 2006).…”