Genetic Structure Of Minz Zhuang And Its Surrounding Han Population In Guangxi Napo County

Napo county is a remote and mountainous area bordering to Northeast Vietnam and the south of Yunnan province where lives minorities such as Zhuang, Yao, Miao, Yi, Mulao and few Hans, in which Minz Zhuang and Han are the most isolated populations. In order to understand the genetic structure of Minz Zhuang and Napo Han groups, who might have isolated from the mainstream population for a long time, we studied the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA of these two groups, both from paternal and maternal level. According to the 18 population-specific Y chromosome bi-allelic markers, 5 Y-STR markers and mtDNA HVS-â… region in East Asia, molecular genetic techniques and analytic methods like DNA sequencing, fluorescent PCR, principal component analysis, AMOVA were applied to determine the haplogroups of Y-SNP, Y-STR and mtDNA and the genetic diversity of the samples. As a result, both Minz Zhuangs and Napo Hans carried O1a*, O2a*, two common and typical Y-haplogrougs in the southern aborigines. On mtDNA, the higher frequent haplogroups were D4, R9c, M*, M7b* and B4a for Minz Zhuang and M7b*, M*, M7*, R9b and F1* for Napo Han, respectively, which were closed to that of their surrounding ethnic groups and the southern minorities, especially Daic population. Basing on the published and unpublished Y and mtDNA haplogroup data from Han branches, Zhuang branches, and other East Asian groups, the principal component analytic plot, network plot and topography were drew and they all genetically revealed that, Napo Han was much more closed to the southern minorities and far from other Han groups; Minz Zhuang was also different from other Zhuang branches. Genetic diversity analysis, especially the network plot and topography among Minz Zhuang, other Zhuang branches and Daic-Thai group showed that Minz Zhuang is a unique branch left on the way of migration of Thai-Lao people when they moved southward. In summary, our data suggested that, Napo Hans had been assimilated by southern aboriginals genetically; the emergence of Minz Zhuang resulted from the Thai-Lao southward migration; the internal genetic structure of Minz Zhaung was different from that of other Zhaung branches to some extent.