2009/12/10 by Mahmood Ameen Abdulla, Ikhlak Ahmed, Anunchai Assawamakin +89 · 31 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Forensic and Genetic Research #Genetic diversity and population structure #Race, Genetics, and Society #Haplotype #Gene flow #Genetic diversity #Geography #Ethnic group #East Asia #Genetic variation #Diversity (politics) #Evolutionary biology #Biology #Demography #Population #Genetics #Gene #Archaeology #China #Allele #Anthropology
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1177074
openalex publication_date 2009/12/10 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/27
Asia harbors substantial cultural and linguistic diversity, but the geographic structure of genetic variation across the continent remains enigmatic. Here we report a large-scale survey of autosomal variation from a broad geographic sample of Asian human populations. Our results show that genetic ancestry is strongly correlated with linguistic affiliations as well as geography. Most populations show relatedness within ethnic/linguistic groups, despite prevalent gene flow among populations. More than 90% of East Asian (EA) haplotypes could be found in either Southeast Asian (SEA) or Central-South Asian (CSA) populations and show clinal structure with haplotype diversity decreasing from south to north. Furthermore, 50% of EA haplotypes were found in SEA only and 5% were found in CSA only, indicating that SEA was a major geographic source of EA populations.