East Asian Population In Southwest Mitochondrial Dna Studies: Tibetan And Meng Khmer Language The Matrilineal Genetic Diversity Of The Crowd

The development of molecular has provided new evidence and epoch-making information for many anthropological questions, such as human origin, evolution and migration. In the studies of molecular anthropology, human DNA is used as a tool to analyze the genetic structure of populations. Combined with results of molecular anthropology, physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistics and ethnology, we can comprehensively understand the history and evolution of populations.Several unique properties of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), including its high copy number, maternal inheritance, lack of recombination, and high mutation rate, have made it the molecule of choice for studies of human population history and evolution. In this thesis, we used mtDNA diversity information to study maternal genetic structure and origin of Tibetan and Mon-Khmer populations in western and southern East Asia.As a high-altitude immense plateau surrounded by towering mountain range, Tibetan plateau served as an important region in the studies of human origin and evolution. However, there are still controversies among the origin and migration routes of Tibetan, which is the most widely distributed Aboriginal on the plateau. We sampled562Tibeto-Burman inhabitants from nine different regions across the plateau to carry out high-resolution mtDNA analyses. By examining the mtDNA haplogroup distributions and their principal components, we confirmed that the maternal diversity on the plateau reflects mostly the northern East Asian component. We also demonstrated multiple origins of the Tibetan people:the relic of Palaeolithic people before the Last Glacial Maximum(LGM) represented by haplogroup M62; ancient populations from northern East Asia10,000to20,000years ago represented by haplogroup A, C and D; Neolithic migrants represented by haplogroup M9; and historical population movements.Indo-China Peninsula is a crucial intermediate station in the routes of modern human migrations into East Asia. However, little investigation has been conducted on the populations of this area. Here we presented the mtDNA data of888individuals from18populations of Mon-Khmer language branch, which distributed primarily across Southeast Asia. The principal components of Mon-Khmer mtDNA gene pool are haplogroup B, F and M*, which are ancient and high-frequency in southern East Asia. Network analyses of several haplogroups (B4c2, R22and Flb) revealed south-to-north human migrations10,000～20,000years ago, which may be the result of post-glacial sea level rise. Finally, we also confirmed different maternal origins of Mon-Khmer and Munda populations.