A predominantly indigenous paternal heritage for the Austronesian-speaking peoples of insular Southeast Asia and Oceania
Open accessAbstract
Modern humans reached Southeast Asia and Oceania in one of the first dispersals out of Africa. The resulting temporal overlap of modern and archaic humans-and the apparent morphological continuity between them-has led to claims of gene flow between Homo sapiens and H. erectus. Much more recently, an agricultural technology from mainland Asia spread into the region, possibly in association with Austronesian languages. Using detailed genealogical study of Y chromosome variation, we show that the majority of current Austronesian speakers trace their paternal heritage to Pleistocene settlers in the region, as opposed to more-recent agricultural immigrants. A fraction of the paternal heritage, however, appears to be associated with more-recent immigrants from northern populations. We also show that the northern Neolithic component is very unevenly dispersed through the region, with a higher contribution in Southeast Asia and a nearly complete absence in Melanesia. Contrary to claims of gene flow (under regional continuity) between H. erectus and H. sapiens, we found no ancestral Y chromosome lineages in a set of 1,209 samples. The finding excludes the possibility that early hominids contributed significantly to the paternal heritage of the region.
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Studies of paternally inherited NRY markers have revealed a mostly Melanesian origin of Polynesian paternal lineages.
“studies of paternally inherited DNA markers from the nonrecombining portion of the Y chromosome (NRY) have revealed a mostly Melanesian origin of Polynesian paternal lineages (Kayser, Brauer et al. 2000;Capelli et al. 2001;Underhill, Passarino, Lin, Marzuki et al. 2001;Hurles et al. 2002) supporting the ''Slow Boat'' hypothesis”
From Melanesian and Asian origins of Polynesians: MtDNA and Y chromosome gradients across the Pacific (2006) · cites this paper as Capelli et al. 2001
Lower levels of inferred European ancestry in Polynesia than reported in other studies may reflect the care taken to exclude individuals whose genealogical history indicated European ancestry.
“The fact that we find lower levels of inferred European ancestry in Polynesia than reported in other studies (Hurles et al. 1998;Capelli et al. 2001) may reflect the care taken to exclude individuals whose genealogical history indicated European ancestry.”
From Melanesian and Asian origins of Polynesians: MtDNA and Y chromosome gradients across the Pacific (2006) · cites this paper as Capelli et al. 2001
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Genome-wide analysis indicates more Asian than Melanesian ancestry of Polynesians
Kayser, M., Lao, O., Saar, K., Brauer, S., Wang, X., Nürnberg, P., Trent, R. J., & Stoneking, M. (2008) · The American Journal of Human Genetics · doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.09.010 · Cited by 174 · see citing works
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Population Genetic Structure and Origins of Native Hawaiians in the Multiethnic Cohort Study
Kim, S. K., Gignoux, C. R., Wall, J. D., Lum-Jones, A., Wang, H., Haiman, C. A., Chen, G. K., Henderson, B. E., Kolonel, L. N., Le Marchand, L., et al. (2012) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0047881 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
- Authors
- Capelli, C., Wilson, J. F., Richards, M., Stumpf, M. P. H., Gratrix, F., Oppenheimer, S., Underhill, P., Pascali, V. L., Ko, T.-M., & Goldstein, D. B.
- Affiliations
- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (IT)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- Stanford University (US)
- National Taiwan University (TW)
- Corresponding author
- Goldstein, David B.
- ORCID
- Venue
- The American Journal of Human Genetics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2001-02
- Volume
- 68
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 432-443
- ISSN
- 0002-9297 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC1235276
- OpenAlex
- W2123684808
- Cited by
- 136
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 5.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The American Journal of Human Genetics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- University of Huddersfield Repository (University of Huddersfield) (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Forensic and Genetic Research
- Social Sciences › Geography, Planning and Development › Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
- Keywords
- paternal ancestry, Y-chromosome variation, gene flow, Homo erectus, early modern human dispersal, Neolithic migration, agricultural migration, Melanesia, insular Southeast Asia, Oceania
- MeSH terms
- Asia, Southeastern, China, Europe, Gene Frequency, Genealogy and Heraldry, Genetics, Population, Genotype, Geography, Haplotypes, Humans, Male, Pacific Islands, Taiwan, Y Chromosome
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