Cited by 1,674Forensic and Genetic ResearchGenetic diversity and population structureRace, Genetics, and Society

Reconstructing Indian population history

Open access
Reich, David, Thangaraj, Kumarasamy, Patterson, Nick, Price, Alkes L., Singh, Lalji·2009·Nature

Abstract

India has been underrepresented in genome-wide surveys of human variation. We analyse 25 diverse groups in India to provide strong evidence for two ancient populations, genetically divergent, that are ancestral to most Indians today. One, the 'Ancestral North Indians' (ANI), is genetically close to Middle Easterners, Central Asians, and Europeans, whereas the other, the 'Ancestral South Indians' (ASI), is as distinct from ANI and East Asians as they are from each other. By introducing methods that can estimate ancestry without accurate ancestral populations, we show that ANI ancestry ranges from 39-71% in most Indian groups, and is higher in traditionally upper caste and Indo-European speakers. Groups with only ASI ancestry may no longer exist in mainland India. However, the indigenous Andaman Islanders are unique in being ASI-related groups without ANI ancestry. Allele frequency differences between groups in India are larger than in Europe, reflecting strong founder effects whose signatures have been maintained for thousands of years owing to endogamy. We therefore predict that there will be an excess of recessive diseases in India, which should be possible to screen and map genetically.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/nature08365

Cites

54 of 54 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Standard errors for all allele-frequency-based statistics were computed using a block bootstrap with 100 replicates and a block size of 1000 markers.

    “Standard errors for all allele frequency based statistics were computed using the block-bootstrap using 100 replicates and a block size of 1000 markers86.”

    From Paths and timings of the peopling of Polynesia inferred from genomic networks (2021) · cites this paper as [86]

    The Methods Summary (page not available in our copy) says standard errors were computed using a Block Jackknife, not a block bootstrap. It does not give the claimed 100 replicates or 1,000-marker block size. (LLM, conf=0.89)

    Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The demographic impact of steppe related populations on South Asia was substantial: the Mala are inferred to have ~18% steppe-related ancestry, while the Kalash of Pakistan are inferred to have ~50%, similar to present-day northern Europeans.

    “The demographic impact of steppe related populations on South Asia was substantial, as the Mala, a south Indian population with minimal ANI along the ‘Indian Cline’ of such ancestry34,35 is inferred to have ~18% steppe-related ancestry, while the Kalash of Pakistan are inferred to have ~50%, similar to present-day northern Europeans7.”

    From Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East (2016) · cites this paper as [34]

    Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 2 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Darkly pigmented skin, or the potential for facultative dark pigmentation through tanning, evolved secondarily under positive selection in populations moving from low- to high-UVR environments.

    “Evidence is mounting that darkly pigmented skin, or the potential for facultative development of dark pigmentation through tanning, evolved secondarily under positive selection in populations moving from low-to high-UVR environments.”

    From Human skin pigmentation as an adaptation to UV radiation (2010) · cites this paper as [44]

    The Discussion addresses ancestry and population structure in India, while Medical implications addresses genetic differentiation and disease risk. Searches for skin pigmentation, tanning, UVR, and selection found no passage in our copy addressing the claimed evolution of dark pigmentation in populations moving to high-UVR environments. (LLM, conf=0.76)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • It is impossible to model the Ancestral North Indians (ANI) as being derived from any single ancient population in the dataset.

    “We show that it is impossible to model the ANI as being derived from any single ancient population in our dataset.”

    From Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East (2016) · cites this paper as [34]

    The ‘Relationship of Indians to non-Indians’ section reports that ANI and CEU form a clade, but does not test whether ANI could derive from any single ancient population in a dataset. The Discussion says that the history of ANI before mixture remains a priority for future work. Searches for the claimed single-population modelling result found no passage addressing it. (LLM, conf=0.76)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Reich, D., Thangaraj, K., Patterson, N., Price, A. L., & Singh, L.
Affiliations
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Broad Institute (US)
  • Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (IN)
Corresponding author
  • Reich, David
  • Singh, Lalji
Venue
Nature
Published
2009-09
Volume
461
Issue
7263
Pages
489-494
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2119228812
Cited by
1,674
References
53
Citations by year
2026: 67 · 2025: 122 · 2024: 104 · 2023: 70 · 2022: 116 · 2021: 147 · 2020: 119 · 2019: 108 · 2018: 112 · 2017: 103 · 2016: 102 · 2015: 101 · 2014: 88 · 2013: 93 · 2012: 61
FWCI
42.70
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • UK-India Education and Research Initiative
  • Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Human Genome Research Institute (R01HG006399, U01HG004168, HG004168)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Forensic and Genetic Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Race, Genetics, and Society
Keywords
population structure, ancestry estimation, endogamy, founder effect, allele frequency differences, genetic admixture
MeSH terms
Asia, DNA, Mitochondrial, Ethnicity, Europe, Female, Gene Frequency, Genes, Recessive, Genetics, Medical, Genetics, Population, Genotype, Geography, Humans, India, Language, Male, Middle East, Phylogeny, Genetic Variation, Linkage Disequilibrium, Genome, Human, Founder Effect, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Genomics, Principal Component Analysis, Chromosomes, Human, Y, Racial Groups

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review