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Molecular Genetic Analysis of Remains of a 2,000-Year-Old Human Population in Chinaand Its Relevance for the Origin of the Modern Japanese Population

Hiroki Oota(1), Naruya Saitou(2), Takayuki Matsushita(3), and Shintaroh Ueda(1)
(1)Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo
(2)Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Japan
(3)Doigahama Site Anthropological Museum, Houhoku, Japan

Summary

We extracted DNA from the human remains excavated from the Yixi site (2,000 years before the present) in the Shandong peninsula of China and, through PCR amplification, determined nucleotide sequences of their mitochondrial D-loop regions. Nucleotide diversity of the ancient Yixi people was similar to those of modern populations. Modern humans in Asia and the circum-Pacific region are divided into six radiation groups, on the basis of the phylogenetic network constructed by means of 414 mtDNA types from 1,298 individuals. We compared the ancient Yixi people with the modern Asian and the circum-Pacific populations, using two indices: frequency distribution of the radiation groups and genetic distances among populations. Both revealed that the closest genetic relatedness is between the ancient Yixi people and the modern Taiwan Han Chinese. The Yixi people show closer genetic affinity with Mongolians, mainland Japanese, and Koreans than with Ainu and Ryukyu Japanese and less genetic resemblance with Jomon people and Yayoi people, their predecessors and contemporaries, respectively, in ancient Japan.

Taiwanese and ancient northern Han are not genetically separate Saturday, December 08, 2001 at 14:02:44 (PST)

A brief history of China

HENRY GEE

One fifth of the human population is found in China. Perhaps surprisingly, the genetic diversity of this vast country has been rather little studied. This could change thanks to the collective effort of several institutes now participating in the Chinese Human Genome Diversity Project (CHGDP).

An intriguing report from eight participating CHGDP institutes appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. The all-Chinese team comes from all over the People's Republic of China, although one author also has US affiliations ñ and the researchers acknowledge additional help from Taiwan. The researchers have studied the genetic diversity of China in unprecedented detail. Although the work is still preliminary, it could shed light not only on the history of China but on the whole of humanity.

More than 93% of the Chinese people belong to the Han, an ethnic division associated with northern China which owes its name to the Han dynasty that ruled China from 206 BC to 220 AD. The remaining 6.7% of the population (about 100 million people) belong to 55 officially recognized minority nationalities, half of whom are found in just one of China's 28 provinces, Yunnan, in the extreme south.

In general, China is divided culturally into distinct northern and southern regions, with the dividing line falling, roughly, between the valleys of China's two great rivers, the Huang Ho and the Yangtze. These cultural differences run deep. The northern region is ethnically and linguistically more homogeneous than the diverse south ñ differences that may be rooted in the more varied ecology and geography of southern China.

But how did this difference come about? Do northern and southern Chinese people have long, separate histories stretching back beyond the dawn of agriculture, 10,000 years ago? Alternatively, did the southern Chinese originate in the north ñ or vice-versa? Or was history more complex, with different migrations happening at different times?

The researchers have been looking at sections of the human genome that run into short, highly repetitive sequences of DNA called 'microsatellites'. These regions mutate rather readily. Mutations accumulate with time, so genetic differences in microsatellites are a good measure of distance of genetic relationship, particularly of closely-related ethnic groups. Microsatellites support conclusions from other lines of evidence ñ that is, that northern and southern Chinese have distinct genetic histories. However, the results are, perhaps inevitably, not quite so clear-cut. In particular, some linguistically or ethincally 'northern' groups tend to cluster, genetically with southern ones. In one sample, members of a northern Hui Muslim group in Ningxia clustered with both northern and southern Han. In another, a group sampled in Henan clustered more with southern Han than it did with northern Han of Beijing and Heilongjiang. One southern Han group in Yunnan clustered more with Mongols than with other Han.

The researchers think that the best explanation for the pattern they see in their data is that northern Chinese ñ and, with them, the Chinese as a whole ñhad a southern origin. This seems to fit best with all the other lines of evidence, and supports a recent common ancestry of all modern humans from a population in Africa that left that continent roughly 100,000 years ago. This is highly contentious. An older view ñ that modern humans in different parts of the world can trace their separate ancestries back perhaps a million years to regional populations of Homo erectus ñ is generally discredited on genetic evidence.

However, distinctive fossil human skulls with features purportedly linking Chinese Homo erectus with modern Chinese people have been proposed in support of this 'multiregional continuity' idea.

The Chinese researchers repudiate this view. They see modern humans entering eastern Asia along the southeast-Asian littoral, presumably replacing any indigenous populations derived from Homo erectus. This fits best with dates (from genetics and archaeology) for the colonization of Australia around 60,000-50,000 years ago. The southeast-Asian stock that gave rise to modern Australians put down roots in Indochina but also moved north, first into southern China, then into northern China, branching out into parts of central Asia, Japan, Siberia and ñ ultimately ñ the Americas, about 13,000 years ago.

All this happened long before the invention of agriculture, which happened about 10,000 years ago, independently, in at least three parts of China. The cultural homogeneity of northern China ñ together with waves of north-to-south migration ñ represent much more recent events, superimposed on the very ancient south-to-north pattern, the original occupation of China by modern humans.

Chinese Human Genome Project and fallacy of some genetic testing Saturday, December 08, 2001 at 13:38:43 (PST)

many genetic studies have also shown that new zealand ppl are related to native taiwanese.
dan Saturday, December 08, 2001 at 05:42:59 (PST)

BooBoo, you need to understand the difference between ethnicity and nationality. Your malay-looking man is malay in ethnicity but his nationality is Chinese. Likewise, Chinese Americans have American nationality but Chinese ethnicity. As for that Korean looking man, are you saying that all Chinese are supposed to look the same? Are white people with blond hair a different race than whites with brown hair? You should use the term ethnicity rather than race, since race is rather vague. By the way, the Chinese are the best race!
The Great Wall Friday, December 07, 2001 at 20:37:41 (PST)

Then the Roman Empire fell because of the the barbarian invaders. The barbarian invaders went to Rome due to a string of conflicts that started the at the Great Wall. The barbarian couldn't get through so they went west. Cascading a string of conflicts that ended in Rome and ultimately cause the demise of the Roman empire, sending Europe into the Dark Ages. Europe depending on the Catholic Church as a psuedo goverment force for a very long time after that.

As for China it fell due to the over investment into the Great Wall as the national defense. Many dynasty fell afterward due to the investing and supporting the Great Wall.

Then a smart dynasty began the revolution in foriegn politics by polygomy practices of the Emperor, by marrying daughter of rulers of neighboring countries, he ensure political peace with by having consensual sex with thy neighbor daughter.

So should we be like Clintonism and engage our neighbors or Bushism with NMD missle to keep out our neighbors...hmmm.

Of course, then the barbarian (USA, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Russia) came from the south and had guns, iron boats, and opium the next time around. China gave the world a magnetic compass and gunpowder, and this is what happens. That the 20th century. Chinese people don't like that part of history.

So now in the 100 years later in the 21st century. Chinese students are in every institution of higher learning on the planet, because the gov't will only let you out if you pursue higher education in hopes that 2% will return. Every country wants to invest in China. China is taking all this money and doing what?!.... building a big dam and buying military equipment from Russia.

I think the next 50 years will be pretty interesting.

As for this origin issue we all started in Africa. Black as the night itself.
AC dropout Friday, December 07, 2001 at 15:28:48 (PST)

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