Y-chromosome distributions among populations in Northwest China identify significant contribution from Central Asian pastoralists and lesser influence of western Eurasians

Abstract

Northwest China is closely adjacent to Central Asia, an intermediate region of the Eurasian continent. Moreover, the Silk Road through the northwest of China once had a vital role in the east-west intercommunications. Nevertheless, little has been known about the genetic makeup of populations in this region. We collected 503 male samples from 14 ethnic groups in the northwest of China, and surveyed 29 Y-chromosomal biallelic markers and 8 short tandem repeats (STRs) loci to reconstruct the paternal architecture. Our results illustrated obvious genetic difference among these ethnic groups, and in general their genetic background is more similar with Central Asians than with East Asians. The ancestors of present northwestern populations were the admixture of early East Asians peopling northwestward and later Central Asians immigrating eastward. This population mixture was dated to occur within the past 10 000 years. The J2-M172 lineages likely entered China during the eastward migration of Central Asians. The influence from West Eurasia through gene flows on the extant ethnic groups in Northwest China was relatively weak.

Radiocarbon-dated archaeological record of early first millennium B.C. mounted pastoralists in the Kunlun Mountains, China

“…The recent results of genetic studies further support the existence of such interregional contacts (36). In particular, the mtDNA analysis carried out on the human remains from Xiaohe cemetery (37) provides evidence that the admixed population of both western and eastern origin lived in eastern Taklamakan (38).…”

Impact of past climatic changes and resource availability on the population demography of three food‐specialist bees

“…; Shou et al . ; Kim et al . ) and (iii) the human MHC (major histocompatibility complex) locus, in which high diversity is maintained through balancing selection (e.g.…”

“…Bamshad et al 2001;de Bruyn et al 2009;Zimmermann et al 2011), (ii) human Y-chromosome microsatellite haplotypes (e.g. Sengupta et al 2006;Shou et al 2010;Kim et al 2011) and (iii) the human MHC (major histocompatibility complex) locus, in which high diversity is maintained through balancing selection (e.g. Andr es et al 2010).…”

The Silk Road: Language and Population Admixture and Replacement

“…However, strong ethnic identity is shared between these two groups (Chen and Lei, 1985;Zhaonasitu, 1981). In previous genetic investigations (Shou et al, 2010), it was inappropriate to employ sampling strategies that often ignored the individual's origin from Eastern Yugur or Western Yugur and thus failed to provide an insight into the relationship between language differentiation and population history. In this study, the major haplogroups C3*-M217, D1a*-N1+,N2-, D3a-P47 and J-M304 are prevalent in Eastern Yugur.…”

“…Haplogroups R1a1a-M17, D1-M15, O3a2c1a-M117, O3a1c-002611 were the most frequent lineages, together comprising 44.6% of the Tu people's paternal gene pool. Haplogroup R1a1a-M17 is predominant in some Turkic-speaking populations (Di Cristofaro et al, 2013;Shou et al, 2010;Wells et al, 2001) and appears with relatively high frequency in Tu people. As mentioned above, haplogroups D1-M15 and D3a-P47, associated with Tibeto-Burman populations (Shi et al, 2008), are also observed at a high frequency and moderate frequency in Tu (10.74% and 4.13%, respectively).…”