Subject
[SDV.GEN.GPO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Genetics/Populations and Evolution [q-bio.PE], [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology

Domains
Archéologie, Anthropologie, Histoire, Ethnologie, Sciences Sociales, Sciences du vivant, Sciences de l'environnement, Sciences humaines

Description

International audience The human settlement of the Pacific Islands represents one of the most recent major migration events of mankind. Polynesians originated in Asia according to linguistic evidence or in Melanesia according to archaeological evidence. To shed light on the genetic origins of Polynesians, we investigated over 400 Polynesians from 8 island groups, in comparison with over 900 individuals from potential parental populations of Melanesia, Southeast and East Asia, and Australia, by means of Y chromosome (NRY) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers. Overall, we classified 94.1% of Polynesian Y chromosomes and 99.8% of Polynesian mtDNAs as of either Melanesian (NRY-DNA: 65.8%, mtDNA: 6%) or Asian (NRY-DNA: 28.3%, mtDNA: 93.8%) origin, suggesting a dual genetic origin of Polynesians in agreement with the "Slow Boat" hypothesis. Our data suggest a pronounced admixture bias in Polynesians toward more Melanesian men than women, perhaps as a result of matrilocal residence in the ancestral Polynesian society. Although dating methods are consistent with somewhat similar entries of NRY/mtDNA haplogroups into Polynesia, haplotype sharing suggests an earlier appearance of Melanesian haplogroups than those from Asia. Surprisingly, we identified gradients in the frequency distribution of some NRY/mtDNA haplogroups across Polynesia and a gradual west-to-east decrease of overall NRY/mtDNA diversity, not only providing evidence for a west-to-east direction of Polynesian settlements but also suggesting that Pacific voyaging was regular rather than haphazard. We also demonstrate that Fiji played a pivotal role in the history of Polynesia: humans probably first migrated to Fiji, and subsequent settlement of Polynesia probably came from Fiji.

Keywords

Language
English (en-GB)

Creators
Kayser, M., Brauer, S., Cordaux, R., Casto, A., Lao, O., Zhivotovsky, L.A., Moyse-Faurie, C., Rutledge, R.B., Schiefenhoevel, W., Gil, D., Lin, A.A., Underhill, P.A., Oefner, P.J., Trent, R.J., Stoneking, M.

Contributors
Department of Evolutionary Genetics ; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology [Leipzig] ; Max-Planck-Gesellschaft-Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Department of Forensic Molecular Biology (EUMCR) ; Erasmus University Medical Center [Rotterdam] (Erasmus MC), Department of Genetics [Stanford] ; Stanford Medicine ; Stanford University-Stanford University, Department of Biological Sciences, Biological Computation and Vusualization Center (BCVC) ; Louisiana State University (LSU), Génétique et biologie des populations de crustacés (GBPC) ; Université de Poitiers-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), N.I. Vavilov Institute of General (RAS) ; Russian Academy of Sciences [Moscow] (RAS), Langues et civilisations à tradition orale (LACITO) ; Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3-Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Center for Neural Science [New York] (CNS) ; New York University [New York] (NYU) ; NYU System (NYU)-NYU System (NYU), Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology (MPIBP) ; Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Department of Linguistics [Leipzig] ; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology [Leipzig] ; Max-Planck-Gesellschaft-Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Institute of Functional Genomics (IFG) ; Universität Regensburg (UR), Department of Molecular and Clinical Genetics (DMCG) ; The University of Sydney

Sources
ISSN: 0737-4038, EISSN: 1537-1719, Molecular Biology and Evolution, https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00117338, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Oxford University Press (OUP), 2006, 23, pp.2234-2244

Relation

Coverage
Melanesia

Name of newspaper