Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Peopling and Population Structure of West and South Asia

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Evolution of the Human Genome II

Part of the book series: Evolutionary Studies ((EVOLUS))

  • 809 Accesses

Abstract

South Asia was peopled on an early wave of human migration from out-of-Africa. This wave passed through the coastline of Saudi Arabia and India to Andaman and Nicobar archipelago and possibly to Australia as well. West Asia, on the other hand, served as a corridor for early and historical human migrations with various ancestries resulting in diverse settlements. At least four ancestral components are discernible in the extant populations of mainland Indian subcontinent. Some ancient tribal groups of Andaman and Nicobar archipelago carry signatures of an ancestry that is distinct from those found in India.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abdulla MA, Ahmed I et al (2009) Mapping human genetic diversity in Asia. Science 326(5959):1541–1545

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Amero KK, Larruga JM, Cabrera VM, Gonzalez AM (2008) Mitochondrial DNA structure in the Arabian peninsula. BMC Evol Biol 8:45. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-8-45.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Amero KK, Hellani A, Gonzalez AM, Larruga JM, Cabrera VM, Underhill PA (2009) Saudi Arabian Y-chromosome diversity and its relationship with nearby regions. BMC Genet 10:59. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2156-10-59

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Saud H, Wakil SM, Meyer BF, Falchi M, Dzimiri N (2015) The genetic structure of the Saudi Arabian population. In: Abstract of presentation made in the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, ASHG 2015

    Google Scholar 

  • Balter M (2013) Ancient DNA. Farming's tangled European roots. Science 342(6155):181–182

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bamshad MJ, Watkins WS et al (1998) Female gene flow stratifies Hindu castes. Nature 395(6703):651–652

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bamshad M, Kivisild T et al (2001) Genetic evidence on the origins of Indian caste populations. Genome Res 11(6):994–1004

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Basu A, Mukherjee N et al (2003) Ethnic India: a genomic view, with special reference to peopling and structure. Genome Res 13(10):2277–2290

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Basu A, Sarkar-Roy N, Majumder PP (2016) Genomic reconstruction of the history of extant populations of India reveals five distinct ancestral components and a complex structure. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 113:1594–1599. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1513197113

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cann RL, Stoneking M et al (1987) Mitochondrial DNA and human evolution. Nature 325(6099):31–36

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Consortium IGV (2008) Genetic landscape of the people of India: a canvas for disease gene exploration. J Genet 87(1):3–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond JM (1999) Guns, germs, and steel: the fates of human societies. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Endicott P, Gilbert MT et al (2003) The genetic origins of the Andaman islanders. Am J Hum Genet 72(1):178–184

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Forster P (2004) Ice ages and the mitochondrial DNA chronology of human dispersals: a review. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 359(1442):255–264

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Forster P, Matsumura S (2005) Evolution. Did early humans go north or south? Science 308(5724):965–966

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Forster P, Torroni A et al (2001) Phylogenetic star contraction applied to Asian and Papuan mtDNA evolution. Mol Biol Evol 18(10):1864–1881

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Green RE, Krause J et al (2010) A draft sequence of the Neandertal genome. Science 328(5979):710–722

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Haak W, Lazaridis I et al (2015) Massive migration from the steppe was a source for indo-European languages in Europe. Nature 522(7555):207–211

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ingman M, Kaessmann H et al (2000) Mitochondrial genome variation and the origin of modern humans. Nature 408(6813):708–713

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kivisild T, Bamshad MJ et al (1999) Deep common ancestry of indian and western-Eurasian mitochondrial DNA lineages. Curr Biol 9(22):1331–1334

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kivisild T, Rootsi S et al (2003) The genetic heritage of the earliest settlers persists both in Indian tribal and caste populations. Am J Hum Genet 72(2):313–332

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kivisild T, Reidla M, Metspalu E, Rosa A, Brehm A, Pennarun E, Parik J, Geberhiwot T, Usanga E, Villems R (2004) Ethiopian mitochondrial DNA heritage: tracking gene flow across and around the gate of tears. Am J Hum Genet 75:752–770

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kong QP, Yao YG et al (2003) Phylogeny of east Asian mitochondrial DNA lineages inferred from complete sequences. Am J Hum Genet 73(3):671–676

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lahr MM, Foley R (1994) Multiple dispersals and modern human origins. Evolution Anthropol: Issues News Rev 3(2):48–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lahr MM, Foley RA (1998) Towards a theory of modern human origins: geography, demography, and diversity in recent human evolution. Am J Phys Anthropol 27:137–176

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Larson G, Piperno DR et al (2014) Current perspectives and the future of domestication studies. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111(17):6139–6146

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Li JZ, Absher DM et al (2008) Worldwide human relationships inferred from genome-wide patterns of variation. Science 319(5866):1100–1104

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Macaulay V, Hill C et al (2005) Single, rapid coastal settlement of Asia revealed by analysis of complete mitochondrial genomes. Science 308(5724):1034–1036

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mellars P (2006) Going east: new genetic and archaeological perspectives on the modern human colonization of Eurasia. Science 313(5788):796–800

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Metspalu M, Kivisild T et al (2004) Most of the extant mtDNA boundaries in south and Southwest Asia were likely shaped during the initial settlement of Eurasia by anatomically modern humans. BMC Genet 5:26

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Moorjani P, Thangaraj K et al (2013) Genetic evidence for recent population mixture in India. Am J Hum Genet 93(3):422–438

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mountain JL, Hebert JM et al (1995) Demographic history of India and mtDNA-sequence diversity. Am J Hum Genet 56(4):979–992

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Oppenheimer S (2004) Out of Eden: the peopling of the world. Constable, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Oppenheimer S (2012) Out-of-Africa, the peopling of continents and islands: tracing uniparental gene trees across the map. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 367(1590):770–784

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Palanichamy MG, Sun C et al (2004) Phylogeny of mitochondrial DNA macrohaplogroup N in India, based on complete sequencing: implications for the peopling of South Asia. Am J Hum Genet 75(6):966–978

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Petraglia M (2003) The lower Paleolithic of the Arabian peninsula: occupations, adaptations, and dispersals. J World Prehist 17:141–179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petraglia M, Alsharekh A (2003) The middle Palaeolithic of Arabia: implications for modern human origins, behaviour and dispersals. Antiquity 77:671–684

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petraglia M, Korisettar R et al (2007) Middle Paleolithic assemblages from the Indian subcontinent before and after the Toba super-eruption. Science 317(5834):114–116

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Quintana-Murci L, Semino O et al (1999) Genetic evidence of an early exit of Homo sapiens sapiens from Africa through eastern Africa. Nat Genet 23(4):437–441

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Quintana-Murci L, Chaix R et al (2004) Where west meets east: the complex mtDNA landscape of the southwest and central Asian corridor. Am J Hum Genet 74(5):827–845

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ramachandran S, Deshpande O et al (2005) Support from the relationship of genetic and geographic distance in human populations for a serial founder effect originating in Africa. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 102(44):15942–15947

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Reich D, Thangaraj K et al (2009) Reconstructing Indian population history. Nature 461(7263):489–494

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Reich D, Green RE et al (2010) Genetic history of an archaic hominin group from Denisova cave in Siberia. Nature 468(7327):1053–1060

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg NA, Pritchard JK et al (2002) Genetic structure of human populations. Science 298(5602):2381–2385

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roychoudhury S, Roy S et al (2001) Genomic structures and population histories of linguistically distinct tribal groups of India. Hum Genet 109(3):339–350

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sengupta S, Zhivotovsky LA et al (2006) Polarity and temporality of high-resolution y-chromosome distributions in India identify both indigenous and exogenous expansions and reveal minor genetic influence of central Asian pastoralists. Am J Hum Genet 78(2):202–221

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Soares P, Alshamali F et al (2012) The expansion of mtDNA Haplogroup L3 within and out of Africa. Mol Biol Evol 29(3):915–927

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sun C, Kong QP et al (2006) The dazzling array of basal branches in the mtDNA macrohaplogroup M from India as inferred from complete genomes. Mol Biol Evol 23(3):683–690

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Thangaraj K, Chaubey G et al (2005) Reconstructing the origin of Andaman islanders. Science 308(5724):996

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tommaseo-Ponzetta M, Attimonelli M et al (2002) Mitochondrial DNA variability of West New Guinea populations. Am J Phys Anthropol 117(1):49–67

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Underhill PA, Kivisild T (2007) Use of y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA population structure in tracing human migrations. Annu Rev Genet 41:539–564

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Underhill PA, Passarino G et al (2001) The phylogeography of Y chromosome binary haplotypes and the origins of modern human populations. Ann Hum Genet 65(Pt 1):43–62

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Underhill PA, Myres NM et al (2010) Separating the post-glacial coancestry of European and Asian Y chromosomes within haplogroup R1a. Eur J Hum Genet 18(4):479–484

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vigilant L, Stoneking M et al (1991) African populations and the evolution of human mitochondrial DNA. Science 253(5027):1503–1507

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zerjal T, Xue Y et al (2003) The genetic legacy of the Mongols. Am J Hum Genet 72(3):717–721

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani, India

    Analabha Basu & Partha P. Majumder

Authors
  1. Analabha Basu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Partha P. Majumder
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Partha P. Majumder .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genomics and Evolutionary Biology, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Shizuoka, Japan

    Naruya Saitou

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Basu, A., Majumder, P.P. (2021). Peopling and Population Structure of West and South Asia. In: Saitou, N. (eds) Evolution of the Human Genome II. Evolutionary Studies. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56904-6_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation