The genetic affinities of Gujjar and Ladakhi populations of India

Abstract

The Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh in North India owing to their unique geographic location offer a wide variety of landscape from plains to high altitudes and is a congruence of many languages and cultural practices. Here, we present the genetic diversity studies of Gujjars from Jammu region of J&K and Ladakhi population based on a battery of autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and short tandem repeats (STRs), Y-chromosomal STRs and the control region of the mitochondrial genome. These two populations were observed to be genetically distant to each other as well as to other populations from India. Interestingly, Y-STR analyses showed a closer affinity of Gujjars to other nomadic populations of Pashtuns from Baghlans and Kunduz provinces of Afghanistan and Pashtuns and Sindhis of Pakistan. Gujjars exhibited lesser genetic diversity as compared to Ladakhi population. M30f and M9 were the most abundant mitochondrial haplogroups observed among Gujjars and Ladakhis, respectively. A lower matrilineal to patrilineal diversity was observed for both these populations. The current study presents the first comprehensive analysis of Gujjars and Ladakhis and reveals their unique genetic affiliations with other populations of the world. The Indian subcontinent, which represents about one-sixth of the world population, is a unique conglomerate of multiple cultures, languages and genetic diversity. Together with sub-Himalayan countries and the present day Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the Indian subcontinent is one of the oldest geographical regions inhabited by modern humans and is a witness to ancient human migratory histories 1. The two northernmost Union Territories of India viz., Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh, owing to their geographical location, are believed to have served as a corridor for ancient human migrations between main land of Indian subcontinent and NorthEast Asia, Eurasia or Africa 2,3. The populations of J&K and Ladakh offer a unique platform for looking into the past anthropological and demographic events which may have shaped the extant human population diversity. However, there is scant information about these populations in phylogenetic studies reported in the literature 4-6. In this study we have attempted to understand the genetic relationship of Gujjars (GJ) from Jammu region of J&K and Ladakhis (LL) with other populations of Indian subcontinent. Gujjars inhabit the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent spanning across the regions of J&K, Himachal Pradesh (HP), Rajasthan (RJ), Haryana and Gujarat in India, and in the neighboring countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the Union Territory of J&K, Gujjars constitute the third-largest population group and follow a nomadic/semi-nomadic lifestyle and are dependent on rearing of cattle, goats and sheep 7. Few research groups had previously reported on the genetic diversity studies among Gujjars 8-11 , however, considering the unique geographical distribution of Gujjars and their under-representation...

Contrasting maternal and paternal genetic histories among five ethnic groups from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

“…The MJ networks of the major common NRY haplogroups show that flow of paternal lineages among the five ethnic groups is quite limited and consistent with high levels of male endogamy practiced by them. Similar Y-chromosome results have been previously reported for Central Asian and South Asian ethnic groups 44 , 82 , 91 , 100 , 135 , 136 , but with less pronounced genetic differentiation in maternal lineages 135 – 138 .…”

“…Based on our data, Gujars generally resemble Iranians who mixed with local populations rather than populations from the Caucasus 155 . By contrast, Gujars of Jammu and Kashmir show mtDNA affinities with populations from Uttar Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh to the east 156 . Thus, our data suggest a more complex origin for KPP Gujars.…”

“…It occurred in the Tanolis at a very high frequency but appeared at very low frequencies in the Jadoons, Yousafzais and Syeds, while being completely absent in the Gujars. Haplogroup R1b is the most frequent Y-chromosome lineage in Western Europe (> 70%) [96][97][98][99] , but also appears in South Asian populations at modest frequencies 44,100 .…”

Signatures of high altitude adaptation in Tibeto‐Burman tribes of the Darjeeling Hill Region

“…To date, there are several genetic and morphological studies on the mainland and Indian island populations (Basak et al, 2021; Basu et al, 2016; Chaubey et al, 2011; Kashyap et al, 2006; Metspalu et al, 2011; Mishra et al, 2017; Moorjani et al, 2013; Palanichamy et al, 2006; Reich et al, 2009; Sharma et al, 2012; Tamang et al, 2018). However, the representation of the Indian Himalayan populations is still scarce and scattered (Basak et al, 2021; Negi et al, 2016; Singh et al, 2020; Tamang et al, 2018). Thus in this study, we analyzed four Tibeto‐Burman speaking ethnic tribal groups namely Lepcha, Sherpa, Bhutia, and Tibetans from the DHR.…”

Y-23 mediated genetic data analysis of endogamous Brahmin population of Rajasthan, India

“…The pairwise genetic distance (R st ) between the present population and reference populations from the YHRD are given in Supplementary Table 5 [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] . The YHRD accession numbers of reference populations are listed in Supplementary Table 6 .…”