Dermatoglyphics from All Chinese Ethnic Groups Reveal Geographic Patterning

Abstract

Completion of a survey of dermatoglyphic variables for all ethnic groups in an ethnically diverse country like China is a huge research project, and an achievement that anthropological and dermatoglyphic scholars in the country could once only dream of. However, through the endeavors of scientists in China over the last 30 years, the dream has become reality. This paper reports the results of a comprehensive analysis of dermatoglyphics from all ethnic groups in China. Using cluster analysis and principal component analysis of dermatoglyphics, it has been found that Chinese populations can be generally divided into a southern group and a northern group. Furthermore, there has been considerable debate about the origins of many Chinese populations and about proper assignment of these peoples to larger ethnic groups. In this paper, we suggest that dermatoglyphic data can inform these debates by helping to classify a Chinese population as a northern or southern group, using selected reference populations and quantitative methods. This study is the first to assemble and investigate dermatoglyphics from all 56 Chinese ethnic groups. It is fortunate that data on population dermatoglyphics, a field of physical anthropology, have now been collected for all 56 Chinese ethnic groups, because intermarriage between individuals from different Chinese ethnic groups occurs more frequently in recent times, making population dermatoglyphic research an ever more challenging field of inquiry.

α-adducin Gly460Trp polymorphism and essential hypertension risk in Chinese: a meta-analysis

“…We also classified all the Han populations as either Northern Han Chinese (N-Han) or Southern Han Chinese (S-Han), with the Yangtze River serving as a geographical boundary. [20][21][22] Additionally, the source of heterogeneity was further investigated with stratified meta-analyses based on sample sources (population-based or hospital-based).…”

“…This has been verified by a series of analyses of genetic markers, 21,[55][56][57] anthropological data concerning somatometric and nonmetric features 58,59 and dermatoglyphic parameters. 22,60 In addition, environmental factors, such as geographical location, climate, eating habits and lifestyle all contribute to the North-South differences. In our current study, the Trp allele frequencies in the N-Han population (52.16% in cases and 49.10% in controls) were higher than those in the S-Han population (48.47% in cases and 46.61% in controls).…”

Distribution of MICA haplotypes in a Chinese Han population

“…The Han ethnic group can be divided based on northern and southern origin [7,8]. In this article, we report the distribution of MICA alleles and the associated haplotypes with HLA-A/-B/-DR in a Han population living in Guangdong Province of south China.…”

The association between endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene G894T polymorphism and hypertension in Han Chinese: a case-control study and an updated meta-analysis

“…The significance of the pooled OR was determined by the Z-test; a p value of50.05 was considered significant. In sub-group analysis, we classified all Han Chinese into Northern Han Chinese (N-Han) and Southern Han Chinese (S-Han), with the Yangtze River serving as a geographical boundary Zhang et al, 2010).…”