Genetic profile based upon 15 microsatellites of four caste groups of the eastern Indian state, Bihar

Abstract

The present study clearly depicts the genetic profile of these caste groups, their inherent closeness in the past, and the impact of the imposed caste system that later restricted the gene flow. The study highlights the status of Bhumihar and Kayasth in the Hindu caste system. The former was found clustering with the Brahmin group (as expected, since Bhumihar is known to be a subclass of Brahmin), whereas the distance between the Brahmin and Kayasth caste groups was found to be large. North-eastern Indian Mongoloids form a separate cluster.

Effect of Sociocultural Cleavage on Genetic Differentiation: A Study from North India

“…The low value of F ST , 0.0084, indicates a lesser degree of genetic differentiation between the nine studied populations, either because of the presence of the same recent common ancestor or because of heavy gene flow between the population groups in the past. The results are in congruence with other published reports on populations from Orissa (Sahoo and Kashyap 2005), Karnataka (Rajkumar and Kashyap 2004), and Bihar (Ashma and Kashyap 2003). However, it has been shown that the F ST value can be affected by the nature of the polymorphism studied; high heterozygosity estimates at multi-allelic STR loci often result in diminution of the F ST values (Tishkoff and Kidd 2004).…”