Genetic diversity on the Comoros Islands shows early seafaring as major determinant of human biocultural evolution in the Western Indian Ocean

Msaidie, Said; Ducourneau, Axel; Boëtsch, Gilles; Longepied, Guy; Papa, Kassim; Allibert, Claude; Yahaya, Ali Ahmed; Chiaroni, Jacques; Mitchell, Michael J.

doi:10.1038/ejhg.2010.128

Cited by 67 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…1B) is of significant interest, and although sampling and preservation biases cannot be discounted, may reflect Austronesian colonization of the Comoros before Madagascar. As noted, however, Comorians today speak Bantu languages, and in addition, preliminary molecular genetic studies suggest that they possess only a small proportion of Southeast Asian ancestry (31,42). Nonetheless, the population of the Comoros is small and has been historically subject to significant population bottlenecks and Bantu input as a result of slave raiding and trading over many centuries (43,44).…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient crops provide first archaeological signature of the westward Austronesian expansion

Crowther

Lucas

Helm

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

166

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The Austronesian settlement of the remote island of Madagascar remains one of the great puzzles of Indo-Pacific prehistory. Although linguistic, ethnographic, and genetic evidence points clearly to a colonization of Madagascar by Austronesian language-speaking people from Island Southeast Asia, decades of archaeological research have failed to locate evidence for a Southeast Asian signature in the island's early material record. Here, we present new archaeobotanical data that show that Southeast Asian settlers brought Asian crops with them when they settled in Africa. These crops provide the first, to our knowledge, reliable archaeological window into the Southeast Asian colonization of Madagascar. They additionally suggest that initial Southeast Asian settlement in Africa was not limited to Madagascar, but also extended to the Comoros. Archaeobotanical data may support a model of indirect Austronesian colonization of Madagascar from the Comoros and/or elsewhere in eastern Africa.

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Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient crops provide first archaeological signature of the westward Austronesian expansion

Crowther

Lucas

Helm

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

166

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“…All sampled Malagasy are now known to carry a variant of the Polynesian motif, termed the Malagasy motif (characterized by polymorphisms 1473 and 3423A), whose global geographical range remains unclear [29]. In terms of male history, Y chromosome haplogroup O-otherwise restricted to Southeast Asia and Oceania-has been identified in Madagascar [3,5] and the Comoros Islands, a small archipelago just off Madagascar's northern tip [30]. Where genetic dating has been performed, these genetic connections to Indonesia are consistent with the temporal bounds suggested by archaeology and linguistics [5], although invariably with much larger CI.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A small cohort of Island Southeast Asian women founded Madagascar

et al. 2012

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The settlement of Madagascar is one of the most unusual, and least understood, episodes in human prehistory. Madagascar was one of the last landmasses to be reached by people, and despite the island's location just off the east coast of Africa, evidence from genetics, language and culture all attests that it was settled jointly by Africans, and more surprisingly, Indonesians. Nevertheless, extremely little is known about the settlement process itself. Here, we report broad geographical screening of Malagasy and Indonesian genetic variation, from which we infer a statistically robust coalescent model of the island's initial settlement. Maximum-likelihood estimates favour a scenario in which Madagascar was settled approximately 1200 years ago by a very small group of women (approx. 30), most of Indonesian descent (approx. 93%). This highly restricted founding population raises the possibility that Madagascar was settled not as a large-scale planned colonization event from Indonesia, but rather through a small, perhaps even unintended, transoceanic crossing.

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“…This analysis also provides evidence for human Bantu migration from West-Central Africa down to the eastern/southern African coasts of the Indian Ocean (De Filippo et al, 2012). With respect to male origins, the Arabic peninsula and Iran show a similar proximity (Msaidie et al, 2011). The population dispersion was essentially done by sea routes, as shown by the Xeroderma pigmentosum in the Comoros 3 The distribution (Table 1) of the Y haplogroups in XP-C patients from Comoros, that we have established, [E1b1 (62%), J2a1 (15%), R1a1a (15%), E2b (8%)] is statistically different from the one published for the general population (p<0.01) (Msaidie et al, 2011).…”

Section: The Genetics Of the Population Of Comorosmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…With respect to male origins, the Arabic peninsula and Iran show a similar proximity (Msaidie et al, 2011). The population dispersion was essentially done by sea routes, as shown by the Xeroderma pigmentosum in the Comoros 3 The distribution (Table 1) of the Y haplogroups in XP-C patients from Comoros, that we have established, [E1b1 (62%), J2a1 (15%), R1a1a (15%), E2b (8%)] is statistically different from the one published for the general population (p<0.01) (Msaidie et al, 2011). Some relatively important haplogroups reported in the general Comorian population (E1b1a7 and E1b1a8a, 22% and 9% respectively) were completely absent from the XP-C population (Msaidie et al, 2011).…”

Section: The Genetics Of the Population Of Comorosmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…The admixture analysis of the maternal and paternal contributions to the general Comoros population reveals the genetic pool to be essentially sub-Saharan African, distributed between 60% for males and 85% for females (Msaidie et al, 2011). By computing genetic distances using haplogroups on the Y chromosome between the Comorian population and other source population, Ducourneau (2006) showed that the closest proximity is with sub-Saharan Africa and the Bantu expansion.…”

Section: The Genetics Of the Population Of Comorosmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How history and geography may explain the distribution in the Comorian archipelago of a novel mutation in DNA repair-deficient xeroderma pigmentosum patients

Sarasin

Munier²,

Cartault³

2020

Genet. Mol. Biol.

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Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is a rare, genetic, autosomal nucleotide excision repair-deficient disease characterized by sun-sensitivity and early appearance of skin and ocular tumors. Thirty-two black-skinned XP from Comoros, located in the Indian Ocean, were counted, rendering this area the highest world prevalence of XP. These patients exhibited a new homozygous XPC mutation at the 3'-end of the intron12 (IVS 12-1G>C) leading to the absence of XPC protein. This mutation, characteristic of the consanguineous Comorian families, is associated with a founder effect with an estimated age of about 800 years. Analysis of mt-DNA and Y-chromosome identified the haplogroups of patients, who are derived from the Bantu people. Although the four Comorian islands were populated by the same individuals during the 7-10 th centuries, XP was found now only in the Comorian island of Anjouan. To avoid the slavery process caused by the arrival of the Arabs around the 11-13 th centuries, inhabitants of Anjouan, including XP-heterozygotes, hid inland of the island protected by volcanoes. This population lived with an endogamic style, without connection with the other islands. XP patients still live in the same isolated villages as their ancestries. Local history and geography may, thus, explain the high incidence of XP located exclusively in one island. SubjectsThe XP patients as well as some of their relatives were interviewed and examined by clinicians and geneti-

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Genetic diversity on the Comoros Islands shows early seafaring as major determinant of human biocultural evolution in the Western Indian Ocean

Cited by 67 publications

References 59 publications

Ancient crops provide first archaeological signature of the westward Austronesian expansion

Ancient crops provide first archaeological signature of the westward Austronesian expansion

A small cohort of Island Southeast Asian women founded Madagascar

How history and geography may explain the distribution in the Comorian archipelago of a novel mutation in DNA repair-deficient xeroderma pigmentosum patients

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