Forensic Features and Population Genetic Structure of Dong, Yi, Han, and Chuanqing Human Populations in Southwest China Inferred From Insertion/Deletion Markers

Abstract

Guizhou province in southwest China has abundant genetic and cultural diversities, but the forensic features and genetic structure of Guizhou populations remain poorly understood due to the sparse sampling of present-day populations. Here, we present 30 insertion/deletion polymorphisms (InDels) data of 591 human individuals collected from four populations, Dong, Yi, Han, and Chuanqing residing in Guizhou. We calculated the forensic parameters of 30 InDel loci and found that this panel meets the efficiency of forensic personal identification based on the high combined power of discrimination, but it could only be used as a complementary tool in the parentage testing because of the lower combined probability of exclusion values. The studied populations are genetically closer related to geographically adjacent or linguistically related populations in southern China, such as the Tai-Kadai and Hmong-Mien speaking groups. The unrecognized ethnic Chuanqing people show an additional genetic affinity with Han Chinese, highlighting the role of possible military immigrations in their origin.

Ethnobotanical study on herbal market at the Dragon Boat Festival of Chuanqing people in China

“…The existing studies on the Chuanqing people showed that they were closely related to the Han and local ethnic groups in Guizhou such as the Miao in their social culture [20,21,53] or medical research [54]. Eleven medicinal plants were also recorded in the ChP, the QSG, and the Chuanqing people's medicine simultaneously, suggesting that the diseases treated with medicinal plants by the Chuanqing people were similar to those found among the ChP and the QSG.…”

“…They live mainly in Nayong County and Zhijin County of Guizhou Province [19]. According to the genetic relationship, the Chuanqing people are similar to the south Han, Miao, She, and Tujia ethnicities [20,21]; it is a community with multiple ethnic groups. Every year, on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, the Chuanqing people in Nayong County prepare a grand herbal market at the DBF.…”

Fine-Scale Genetic Structure and Natural Selection Signatures of Southwestern Hans Inferred From Patterns of Genome-Wide Allele, Haplotype, and Haplogroup Lineages

“…The overall language landscape of the Chinese population is dominated by more than 10 mainly language families (including Tai-Kadai, Hmong-Mien, Tungusic, Indo-European, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Turkic, Mongolic, Koranic, and Sino-Tibetan) ( Cavalli-Sforza, 1998 ). However, Guizhou populations are reported to be dominated by the Tai-Kadai, Hmong-Mien, and Sino-Tibetan-speaking families ( Chen et al, 2018 ; Liu et al, 2020 ). A large number of population genetic researches have been conducted and primarily focused on the forensic polymorphism and genetic structure of the Guizhou Hans via STRs included in the AGCU X19 amplification system or InDels included the Investigator DIPplex kit ( Chen et al, 2018 ; He et al, 2019 ; Liu et al, 2020 ).…”

An ethnobotanical study on the Chuanqing People of China based on an herbal market survey at the Dragon Boat Festival

“…The existing studies on the Chuanqing showed that it was closely related to the Han and the local ethnic groups in Guizhou such as the Miao in their social culture [20,21,54] or medical research [55]. Eleven medicinal plants were also recorded in the ChP, the QSG and the Chuanqing's medicine coinstantaneously.…”

“…They live mainly in Nayong County and Zhijin County of Guizhou Province [19]. According to the genetic relationship and formation, the Chuanqing is similar to the south Han, Miao, She and Tujia [20,21], it is a community with multiple ethnic groups. On the fth day of the fth month of the Chinese lunar calendar every year, the Chuanqing in Nayong County prepares a grand herbal market at the DBF.…”