Abstract
Sinhalese and Vedda people are respectively the major ethnic group and the descendants of the probably earliest inhabitants of Sri Lanka, both believed to have a long history of settlement on the island. However, very little information is available on the origin and possible migration patterns of the two populations. Some studies have focused on (CA) dinucleotide repeat variations located in the mitochondrial hypervariable region 3 (HVS3) (base pairs 514–524) as a useful biomarker to understand migration patterns of different populations. Hence, here we analyze these repeat variations in these two ethnic groups to understand their historical roots and possible patterns of gene flow. Blood samples were collected from healthy, maternally unrelated individuals (N = 109) and mitochondrial D-loop was amplified and sequenced. The (CA)4 dinucleotide repeat in hypervariable region 3 was detected in the majority of Vedda samples while the remaining samples were defined by a (CA)5 cluster. In contrast, the (CA)5 repeat was the most frequent among Sinhalese followed by (CA)4 and (CA)7 repeats. Haplogroup diversity of (CA)4 variation indicated that the majority of Sinhalese individuals grouped into the M30 haplogroup while Vedda clustered into the R5a2b and U7a2 haplogroups. No significant differences in diversity measures were observed among the two populations. However, Multidimensional Scaling indicated a separate clustering for aboriginal Vedda and contemporary Sinhalese populations. Results from this study can be used together with mitochondrial DNA information from hypervariable regions 1 and 2 to perform anthropological and forensic investigations in the two populations studied.
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Data availability
mtDNA sequences reported in this study have been submitted to the DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) under accession numbers: LC641819-LC641864 and LC643588-LC643650.
Code availability
Not applicable.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Ms. Anoma Jayasoma, Senior Technical Officer, Institute of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology for her support during the completion of this study.
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Samples were collected under research supported by National Research Council, Sri Lanka, Grant No: 09–20 and National Science Foundation Grant No: NSF/SCH/2016/004.
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KHT and RR: designed the study, AHJW: performed the experiment, JTK and PRP: collected the samples, and AHJW and RR: wrote the paper. KHT: revised the paper. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
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Ethical approval for the initial collection of the samples was obtained from the Research Ethics and Higher Degrees Committee of the Institute of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and Ethics Review Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo (approval numbers EC‑16‑097 and EC‑17‑147).
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Welikala, A.H.J., Ranasinghe, R., Tennekoon, K.H. et al. Mitochondrial DNA (CA)n dinucleotide repeat variations in Sinhalese and Vedda populations in Sri Lanka. Genetica 150, 145–150 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-022-00150-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-022-00150-0