Genetic structure of Qiangic populations residing in the western Sichuan corridor.

The Qiangic languages in western Sichuan (WSC) are believed to be the oldest branch of the Sino-Tibetan linguistic family, and therefore, all Sino-Tibetan populations might have originated in WSC. However, very few genetic investigations have been done on Qiangic populations and no genetic evidences...

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Main Authors: Chuan-Chao Wang, Ling-Xiang Wang, Rukesh Shrestha, Manfei Zhang, Xiu-Yuan Huang, Kang Hu, Li Jin, Hui Li
Format: article
Language:EN
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Subjects:
R
Q
Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/7c5f8c509a4143a8bb67a74d3b873294
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Summary:The Qiangic languages in western Sichuan (WSC) are believed to be the oldest branch of the Sino-Tibetan linguistic family, and therefore, all Sino-Tibetan populations might have originated in WSC. However, very few genetic investigations have been done on Qiangic populations and no genetic evidences for the origin of Sino-Tibetan populations have been provided. By using the informative Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers, we analyzed the genetic structure of Qiangic populations. Our results revealed a predominantly Northern Asian-specific component in Qiangic populations, especially in maternal lineages. The Qiangic populations are an admixture of the northward migrations of East Asian initial settlers with Y chromosome haplogroup D (D1-M15 and the later originated D3a-P47) in the late Paleolithic age, and the southward Di-Qiang people with dominant haplogroup O3a2c1*-M134 and O3a2c1a-M117 in the Neolithic Age.