What Jomon phenotype? Do you understand what the meaning of the word is and why your claims are obviously not backed by any academic sources? Phenotype = any observable characteristic or trait of an organism. The Jomon's have long died out. The only thing that remains of them are their skeletons and I've already posted the cranial measurements which placed them far from Australian or early SE Asian samples. See earlier post. The Ainu, which are assumed to be most direct descendants of the Jomon are Mongoloid. I've not posted one but several articles from peer reviewed journals that prove this. The reason why people still keep claiming the Ainu are Australoid (and now even Melanesian) is because they have a limited definition of what Mongoloids are. Modern day Koreans, Manchus, Chinese, much of the Japanese and even Ryukyuans are comprised of Neo-Mongoloids.. a group of Mongoloids that came out of Siberia, and pushed Paleo-Mongoloids (Older Mongoloids) northward and eastward.
the next problem is your chart, which is totally meaningless with out explaining what the colors mean. you don't even site the source for this material.
secondly, no one ever made the claim Japanese are "island Koreans". if you took time to read the articles I posted above, not only do they prove your claims wrong, they also don't make claims that Japanese are the same as Koreans.
and here's yet another article that proves my point is right.
Genetic Link Between Asians and Native
Americans: Evidence From HLA Genes
and HaplotypesKatsushi Tokunaga, Jun Ohashi, Makoto Bannai,
and Takeo Juji
ABSTRACT: We have been studying polymorphisms of
HLA class I and II genes in East Asians including Buryat
in Siberia, Mongolian, Han Chinese, Man Chinese, Korean
Chinese, South Korean, and Taiwan indigenous populations
in collaboration with many Asian scientists. Regional
populations in Japan, Hondo-Japanese, Ryukyuan,
and Ainu, were also studied. HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1
gene frequencies were subjected to the correspondence
analysis and calculation of DA distances. The correspondence
analysis demonstrated several major clusters of human
populations in the world. “Mongoloid” populations
were highly diversified, in which several clusters such as
Northeast Asians, Southeast Asians, Oceanians, and Native
Americans were observed. Interestingly, an indigenous
population in North Japan, Ainu, was placed relatively
close to Native Americans in the correspondence
analysis. Distribution of particular HLA-A, -B, -DRB1
alleles and haplotypes was also analyzed in relation to
migration and dispersal routes of ancestral populations. A
number of alleles and haplotypes showed characteristic
patterns of regional distribution. For example, B39-HR5-
DQ7 (B*3901-DRB1*1406-DQB1*0301) was shared by
Ainu and Native Americans. A24-Cw8-B48 was commonly
observed in Taiwan indigenous populations, Maori
in New Zealand, Orochon in Northeast China, Inuit, and
Tlingit. These findings further support the genetic link
between East Asians and Native Americans. We have
proposed that various ancestral populations in East Asia,
marked by different HLA haplotypes, had migrated and
dispersed through multiple routes. Moreover, relatively
small genetic distances and the sharing of several HLA
haplotypes between Ainu and Native Americans suggest
that these populations are descendants of some Upper
Paleolithic populations of East Asia. Human Immunology
62, 1001–1008 (2001). © American Society for Histocompatibility
and Immunogenetics, 2001. Published by
Elsevier Science Inc.
INTRODUCTION
The major role of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules
is the presentation of a variety of self and nonself
antigen peptides to T lymphocytes. The HLA system is
coded by a large cluster of genes situated on the short
arm of human chromosome 6, 6p21.3. One of their
outstanding characteristics is that the genes show very
high degrees of polymorphism. Large numbers of alleles
have been admitted by the WHO Nomenclature Committee
for Factors of the HLA System [1]. Totals of 209,
414, and 273 different alleles have been officially named
by December 2000 for HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLADRB1
genes, respectively. Every year, a number of newly
identified alleles are added to the nomenclature list.
Thus, the DNA typing at the sequence level should give
us much more information than the conventional typing.
Moreover, the HLA genes constitute particular combinations
of alleles (HLA haplotypes). The HLA haplotypes
show even higher degrees of polymorphisms. The most
valuable feature of HLA genes in the field of anthropology
or human population genetics is their remarkable
ethnic differences in the distribution of HLA alleles and
haplotypes. We have previously discussed the bases of
their usefulness for studying genetic backgrounds and
relationships of human populations [2– 4]. Briefly, (1)
each HLA locus shows a high degree of polymorphism,
(2) particular HLA haplotypes show strong linkage disequilibria
and such haplotypes may have single origins
and survived for thousands of years, (3) ethnic differences
From the Department of Human Genetics, Graduate School of Medicine,
University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (K.T., J.O.); Japanese Red Cross Tokyo
Metropolitan Blood Center, Tokyo, Japan (M.B.); Japanese Red Cross
Central Blood Center, Tokyo, Japan (T.J.).
Address reprint requests to: Katsushi Tokunaga, Ph.D, Department of
Human Genetics, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo,
Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; Phone: 181-3-5841-
3692; Fax: 181-3-5802-2907; E-Mail: tokunaga@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
Received May 16, 2001; accepted June 15, 2001.
Human Immunology 62, 1001–1008 (2001)
© American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, 2001 0198-8859/01/$–see front matter
Published by Elsevier Science Inc. S0198-8859(01)00301-9
in the frequencies of HLA alleles and haplotypes are
much more extensive than those of other functional
genes, and finally, 4) the HLA region covers approximately
3.6 megabases, thus HLA haplotypes represent
the polymorphic feature of more than one in thousand of
the total human genome. In the present study, we examined
the genetic affinities among Asian and Native
American populations by means of genetic distances and
a multivariate analysis. Genetic link between East Asians
and Amerindians is supported by the sharing of particular
HLA alleles and haplotypes. In this context, a special
attention to the Ainu, the indigenous population in
North Japan, should be paid. Also presented is a preliminary
attempt to estimate the ages of major haplotypes in
each population.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Populations and Genetic Affinities
Genetic affinities among different populations were estimated
by two different methods. First, a phylogenetic
tree analysis was performed using the neighbor-joining
method [5] based on the modified Cavalli-Sforza distance
(DA) [6]. Second, the correspondence analysis [7] was
carried out. For the analyses, we used the serology-level
frequencies for HLA-A and HLA-B and sequence-level
frequencies for HLA-DRB1, because the sequence-level
data for HLA-A and HLA-B were available only in a few
populations up to now. We have been studying HLA
polymorphisms in East Asians including Buryat in Siberia
[8], Mongolian [9], Han Chinese [10], Man Chinese
[10], Korean Chinese [10], South Korean [10], and
Taiwan indigenous populations [11] in collaboration
with many Asian scientists. Regional populations in
Japan, Hondo-Japanese in major islands [10, 12],
Ryukyuan in South Japan [13], and Ainu in North Japan
[4, 14], were also studied. For the other populations, we
referred to previous reports. HLA data of Senegalese,
South Africans, San, Khoi, North American Africans,
Danes, French, Germans, Italians, Romanians, Sardinians,
Spanish, Spanish Gypsies, Asian Indians, Non-Austronesian
Highlanders in Papua New Guinea, Buyi in
South China, Singapore Chinese, and Tlingit in Alaska
were obtained from the summary report at the 11th
International Histocompatibility Workshop (IHW)
[15]. The data of Kazakh in West China were obtained
from our joint report presented at the 12th IHW [10].
The data of Bubi in island of Bioko (Equatorial Guinea)
[16], Zulu in South Africa [17], Moroccan and Ashkenazi
Jews [18], Greeks [19], Croatians [20], Orcadians
[21], Australian aboriginal Wailbri [22], Bunun in Taiwan
[23], Dai Dam [24] and Dai Lue [25] in Thai, urban
Thais [26], Taiwanese [27], Khoton and Khalkh Mongolians
[28], Nivkhi in Sakhalin (Far Eastern Russia)
[29], two Guaicuruan-speaking Argentinian tribes, Toba
and Wichi [30, 31], three Brazilian tribes, Kaingang,
Guarani, and Terena [32–34], Bari Amerindians living on
the border between Venezuela and Colombia [35, 36], and
Seris in Mexico [37] were obtained from previous reports.
Estimation of Haplotype Age
In an attempt to estimate the ages of major haplotypes
found in each population, the following simple mathematical
model is considered. We assume two linked loci,
A and B, each with a number of alleles in a population,
being in the Hardy-Weinberg’s equilibrium. The recombination
fraction between the two loci is denoted by
delta and no mutation is assumed. It is assumed that one
of major haplotypes carries allele a at locus A and allele
b at locus B. The haplotype frequency at time t (measured
in generations) is denoted by hab(t), and the allele frequencies
of a and b are denoted by pa and pb, respectively.
The other alleles are represented by a# at locus A and b#
at
locus B, and the allele frequencies of a# and b#
are 1 2 pa
and 1 2 pb, respectively. When time t is measured backward
in time (i.e., the present is t 5 0), the following
deterministic equations are hold :
hab (t) 5 (1 2 u )hab (t 1 1) 1 upa pb,
ha#b (t) 5 (1 2 u )ha#b (t 1 1) 1 upa(1 2 pa) pb,
hab (t) 5 (1 2 u )hab (t 1 1) 1 upa(1 2 pb),
and
ha#b (t) 5 (1 2 u )ha#b (t 1 1) 1 u (1 2 pa)(1 2 pb).
(1)
These equations can be solved as
hab (t) 5 (hab (0) 1 pa pb)(1 2 u )2t 2 pa pb ,
ha#b (t) 5 (ha#b (0)1(12pa) pb)(12u )2t2(1 2 pa) pb,
hab (t) 5 (hab (0) 1 pa(1 2 pb))(1 2 u )2t
2 pa(1 2 pb),
and
ha#b (t) 5 (ha#b (0) 1 (1 2 pa)(1 2 pb))(1 2 u )2t
2 (1 2 pa)(1 2 pb). (2)
Therefore, when hab(0), ha#b(0), hab# (0), ha#b#
(0), and delta
are known, we can calculate the previous haplotype frequencies
by using the above equations. Although hab(t),
ha#b(t), hab#(t), ha#b#
(t), must be positive values for any t, one
of these will be negative at T when t is increased from 0
by 1. In this paper, the minimum of T 2 1 is regarded
as the possible maximum age of the haplotype carrying a
and b in the population.
1002 K. Tokunaga et al.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Ainu, Indigenous Population in North Japan
Ainu are considered to be descendants of preagricultural
indigenous populations who had resided in Japan since
more than ten thousand years ago (“Jomonese”). Whereas
Hondo-Japanese, who constitute the major population of
contemporary Japan, are descendants mainly of post-
Neolithic migrants from East Asian continent in the
“Yayoi” and “Kofun” periods around 300 B.C. to 600
D.C. [38–40]. Allele and haplotype data supported the
premise. Several allele commonly found in Hondo-Japanese,
including A*3303, B*4403, B*5201, B*5401,
B*0702, DRB1*1502, DRB1*1302, and DRB1*0101
were infrequent in Ainu [4, 14]. These alleles constitute
four major haplotypes in Hondo-Japanese, A*2402-
B*5201-DRB1*1502, A*3303-B*4403-DRB1*1302,
A*2402-B*5401-DRB1*0405, and A*2402-B*0702-
DRB1*0101, respectively [12]. We have suggested that
the ancestral populations marked by the serologically
equivalent haplotypes, B52-DR2(DR15), B44-DR13,
and B7-DR1, may have moved through the Korean
Peninsula into central areas of Japan in the Yayoi and
Kofun Eras, whereas those marked by the B54-DR4
haplotype may have moved through the southern islands
of Japan [3, 41]. We have been studying polymorphisms
of HLA class I and II genes in East Asian populations in
collaboration with many Asian scientists [8 –11]. Regional
populations in Japan, including Hondo-Japanese
[10, 12] and Ryukyuan [13], have also been studied.
When we look at the phylogenetic tree based on these
population data, the Ainu were most far from the other
East Asian populations [13]. Comparing the genetic
distances from the other East Asian populations,
Ryukyuan, Hondo-Japanese, and Nivkhi are relatively
near to the Ainu as shown in Table 1. The Nivkhi are a
native population in Sakhalin, Far Eastern Russia [29].
The Ryukyuans of Okinawa (southwestern islands of
Japan), as well as the Ainu, are considered to be relatively
pure descendants of the preagricultural indigenous people
(Jomonese), although there may be a recent gene flow
from South China marked by the haplotype A*24-B*54-
DRB1*0405 [13]. It is noteworthy that even Hondo-
Japanese is relatively close to such indigenous populations
than the majority of populations in Northeast Asia
such as Chinese populations (Fig. 1).
Genetic Affinities Between East Asians and
Native Americans
The correspondence analysis showed several major groups
such as Africans, Europeans, Northeast and Southeast
Asians, Oceanians, and Amerindians (Fig. 1). Among
them, Mongoloid“ populations were highly diversified
and even separated into several clusters. In the previous
study, we had performed the correspondence analysis
based on 37 populations [4]. In this study, two more
Africans, five more Caucasians, three more East Asians,
and two more Native Americans were added to the
analysis. For two East Asians, previous data were replaced
by new data. All such additional populations went into
the corresponding groups, showing the high reliability of
the analysis and reasonable genetic relationships among
various populations. Moreover, in the East Asian cluster,
Northeast populations and Southeast populations were
more clearly distinguished as separate clusters, when
compared with the previous analysis. Among these major
clusters, Northeast Asians showed the nearest relationship
to Native Americans (Fig. 1). First-dimension scores
distinguished Europeans and Africans from South and
Central Native Americans and Northeast Asians. On the
other hand, second-dimension scores distinguished clusters
of Southeast Asians and Oceanians. In the Northeast
Asian cluster, Ainu, Nivkhi, Ryukyuans, and even
Hondo-Japanese showed relatively low scores for first
dimension. Tlingit is the only Native North Americans
TABLE 1. Genetic distances between Ainu and
other populations
Population Group* Genetic distance (DA)
Ryukyuan (Japan) As 0,149
Hondo Japanese As 0,200
Nivkhi (Sakhalin, Russia) As 0,242
Chinese Koreans As 0,271
Toba (Argentina) Am 0,271
South Koreans As 0,291
Man (NE China) As 0,324
Bunun (Taiwan
indigenous)
As 0,326
Mongolians As 0,328
Buyi (S China) As 0,346
Wichi (Argentina) Am 0,349
Singapore Chinese As 0,356
Han (NE China) As 0,363
Thai Dai Dam As 0,376
Kazakh (W China) As 0,412
Thai Dai Lue As 0,428
Asian Indians As 0,430
Bari (Venezuela/Colombia) Am 0,431
Kaingang (S Brazil) Am 0,442
Tlingit (Alaska) Am 0,450
Romanians Eu 0,466
Germans Eu 0,485
Sardinians Eu 0,542
Senegalese Af 0,636
Khoi Af 0,646
San Af 0,746
* As: Asian, Am: Native American, Eu: European, Af: African.
Genetic Link Between Asians and Native Americans 1003
whose HLA-class I and class II data have been reported.
Comparing with the South or Central Native Americans,
Tlingit is nearer to the Ainu and situated between South
Americans and Northeast Asians, especially Far North
Asian continental populations such as Kazakh and Mongolians
(Fig. 1). It is noteworthy that the Tlingit belong
to a postulated second wave of Asian migrants (the
Na-Dene), whereas South Americans are considered as
first migrants (Amerindians) [42].
Shared Alleles and Haplotypes Between Asians
and Native Americans
Distribution of particular HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 alleles
and haplotypes was also analyzed in relation to migration
and dispersal routes of ancestral populations. A number
of alleles showed characteristic patterns of regional distribution
(Table 2). For example, DRB1*1406 was ob-
FIGURE 1 Genetic relationships among different populations
were measured by correspondence analysis. Ainu,
Ryukyuan, Hondo-Japanese, Nivkhi, Tlingit, Bari, Toba, Terena,
Wichi, Guarani, Seris, Kaingang, and the following 37
populations were compared: 1) San, 2) Khoi, 3) South Africans,
4) Bubi, 5) Zulu, 6) Senegalese, 7) North American Africans,
8) Danes, 9) French, 10) Germans, 11) Italians, 12) Romanians,
13) Sardinians, 14) Spanish, 15) Ashkenazi Jews, 16)
Moroccan Jews, 17) Greeks, 18) Croatians, 19) Orcadians, 20)
Spanish Gypsies, 21) Khoton Mongolians, 22) Khalkh Mongolians,
23) Asian Indians, 24) Mongolians, 25) Kazakh, 26)
Han, 27) South Koreans, 28) Man Chinese, 29) Thais, 30)
Singapore Chinese, 31) Taiwanese, 32) Buyi, 33) Thai Dai
Dam, 34) Thai Die Lue, 35) Bunun, 36) Non-Austronesian
Highlanders in Papua New Guinea, and 37) Wailbri. Contributions
of the first and second dimensions are 17.5% and
13.6%, respectively.
TABLE 2 Common HLA alleles in Native Americans and their distribution in other populations
Australia Taiwan S. China N. China Hondo Mongolian N. Japan Sakhalin S. Japan Alaska Argentina Brazil Mexico
African European Wailbri Bunun Thai Buyi Han Japanese Ainu Nivkhi Ryukyu Tlingit Toba Wichi Kaingang Terena Seri
A24 ,4.7 6.1–18.1 33,6 55,6 20,2 16,7 12,3 37,4 25,8 24,0 50,9 35,3 26,8 10,1 21,6 6,3 17,5 8,8
A31 0.5–5.0 ,3.9 3,2 2,5 0,7 2,6 10,3 5,3 12,0 4,7 8,3 3,6 25,0 38,6 71,6 18,3 16,6
B35 0.5–13.1 3.4–20.6 4,6 1,4 9,1 7,6 5,0 11,0 10,4 19,4 12,7 16,0 34,8 36,7 26,8 41,0
B39 0.9–4.5 ,4.0 2,4 14,2 2,1 3,6 2,6 2,8 0,7 16,0 5,7 3,8 9,9 12,0 19,2 19,8
B48 ,1.0 ,0.7 11,6 1,1 5,3 1,5 5,9 7,0 11,3 4,4 4,5 24,1 10,9 8,1 16,4 1,0
DRB1*1602 ,2.7 ,1.8 7,7 2,9 14,8 3,4 1,7 0,5 0,3 2,3 11,7 27,1
DRB1*1402 ,0.6 ,0.6 2,9 0,3 0,5 6,6 52,4 10,6 26,4 17,8 13,6
DRB1*0802 ,5.0 ,0.9 0,8 6,6 5,0 10,0 2,8 7,9 0,9 22,3 18,3 51,4 20,3 36,3
DRB1*1406 ,0.2 0,8 2,3 17,0 5,7 2,3 23,7 17,1 11,0
1004 K. Tokunaga et al.
served at high allele frequencies in some Native Americans
(Toba; 23.7%, Wichi; 17.1%, and Terena; 11.0%)
[15, 30, 34]. This allele has not been found in Southern
Chinese, Europeans, or Africans, and has been infrequently
observed in Koreans. Interestingly enough, this
allele is common in the indigenous Northeast Asian
populations, Ainu (17.0%) and Nivkhi (5.7%) and is
also observed in Ryukyuans (2.3%) and Japanese (2.3%)
[10, 13, 14, 29]. As we reported previously,
DRB1*1406 may constitute a haplotype, B*3901-
DRB1*1406-DQB1*0301, in Ainu [4]. A serologically
equivalent haplotype, B39-HR5-DQ7, was reported to
be shared by some Native Americans [43]. A similar
distribution has been observed for DRB1*1402. It has
been commonly observed in Native Americans and
Nivkhi [15, 29, 30, 34, 37]. Some other characteristic
alleles in Native Americans has been observed wider in
East Asia (Table 2). DRB1*0802 was very common
allele in Native Americans [30, 32–34, 37]. This allele
was also observed at frequencies of 5–10% in Japanese
populations (Ainu, Ryukyuans, and Hondo-Japanese)
and Northeast Asians (Khalha Mongolians and Kazakh)
[9, 10, 13, 14] but has been reported to be rare in
Southern Chinese or Europeans [15]. For the HLA-class
I haplotype, A31-B51, has been commonly observed in
both Native Americans (Native Brazilian and North
American Indian) and East Asians (Ainu and Orochon)
[4, 15]. The haplotype, A24-Cw8-B48 was commonly
observed in Taiwan indigenous populations, as well as
Maori in New Zealand, Orochon in Northeast China,
Inuit, and Tlingit [11]. Interestingly, this widely distributed
haplotype may carry a MICA-MICB null haplotype
[44, 45]. These data further support the genetic
link between East Asians and Native Americans. A rare
allele, DRB1*1106, is notable. The allele had been
found in one Korean and two Singapore Chinese [46, 47]
and then has been found to be common in neighboring
indigenous populations, Ainu [14] and Nivkhi [29], at
allele frequencies of 5.0% and 9.4%, respectively.
DRB1*1106 may be carried by the haplotype, B*3901-
DRB1*1106-DQB1*0301, in Ainu [4]. The equivalent
serological association, B39-DR11-DQ7, was observed
in Singapore Chinese and even in Brazilians [15]. These
findings suggest that DRB1*1106 might be an old allele
inherited from Upper Paleolithic populations in East
Asia. There is no doubt that natural selection has operated
to maintain the wide variety of HLA alleles. However,
there is a controversy if natural selection strongly
biased the distribution of HLA alleles and haplotypes in
modern human populations. The majority of the population
studies so far performed by means of HLA polymorphisms
including our own studies have essentially
agreed with the studies using other ”neutral“ genetic
markers. Thus, the influence of natural selection on the
regional distribution of HLA alleles and haplotypes may
be smaller than that of isolation, migration and admixture
of ancestral populations.
Attempt to Estimate Haplotype Ages
We performed an attempt to estimate the ages of HLA
haplotypes based on a deterministic model. Figure 2
shows the estimated ages of major haplotypes in South
Korean and three Japanese populations.
It is obvious that
Hondo-Japanese share several major haplotypes, including
B61(B*4006)-DR9(DRB1*0901), B44(B*4403)-DR13
(DRB1*1302) and B62(B*1501)-DR4(DRB1*0406),
with Koreans, and such haplotypes are relatively young (at
most ca.3000 years). Ryukyuan have also a few such young
haplotypes, but they have some old haplotypes, too.
On the
other hand, Ainu have the oldest haplotype (B*1501-
DRB1*1401), and a shared haplotype between Ainu and
Native Americans mentioned above (B*3901-
DRB1*1406-DQB1*0301) was the third oldest one in
Ainu. Moreover, none of the major haplotypes in Ainu are
frequent in the other Japanese and Korean populations.
These results again support the hypothesis that
Ainu are
relatively pure descendants of preagricultural indigenous
populations, whereas Hondo-Japanese are descendants
mainly of post-Neolithic migrants from East Asian continent.
Ryukyuan had shared similar ancestral populations
with Ainu in the prehistoric age but they have recently
received significant gene flow from the continent [4, 13,
14]. Although we estimated the ages in a deterministic
manner, random genetic drift is known to affect haplotype
frequencies. In fact, sizes of many human ancestral populations
are considered to be small and have been isolated
from each other to certain degrees. In such subdivided
population structures, linkage disequilibrium is likely to
become stronger and certain haplotypes may be maintained
for longer time than expected in a deterministic
manner [48]. Thus, we consider that the relative length of
the estimated ages rather than the estimated figures may
be more reliable in the present study
FIGURE 2 Estimated ages of major haplotypes. The recombination
fraction between HLA-B and -DR was set to 0.005.
One generation corresponds to 20 years. For Hondo-Japanese,
HLA-B-DR haplotypes, B54-DR15, B44-DR13, B7-DR1,
B54-DR4, B61-DR9, B35-DR4, B62-DR4, and B46-DR8,
were analyzed. For South Korean, B44-DR13, B62-DR4, B44-
DR7, B13-DR7, B54-DR4, B61-DR9, B58-DR13, and B35-
DR4 were analyzed. For Ryukyuan, B54-DR4, B35-DR15,
B59-DR4, B61-DR9, and B61-DR4 were analyzed. For Ainu,
B62-DR14, B62-DR12, B62-DR8, B39-DRHR5(DR14),
B35-DR14, B39-DR11, B51-DR9, B48-DR4, and B40-
DR12 were analyzed. Only haplotypes shared by more than
two populations are indicated: B61-DR9 (f), B54-DR4 (Œ),
B44-DR13 (d), B62-DR4 (h), and B35-DR4 (‚).
Genetic Link Between Asians and Native Americans 1005
populations,
whereas Hondo-Japanese are descendants
mainly of post-Neolithic migrants from East Asian continent.
Ryukyuan had shared similar ancestral populations
with Ainu in the prehistoric age but they have recently
received significant gene flow from the continent [4, 13,
14]. Although we estimated the ages in a deterministic
manner, random genetic drift is known to affect haplotype
frequencies. In fact, sizes of many human ancestral populations
are considered to be small and have been isolated
from each other to certain degrees. In such subdivided
population structures, linkage disequilibrium is likely to
become stronger and certain haplotypes may be maintained
for longer time than expected in a deterministic
manner [48]. Thus, we consider that the relative length of
the estimated ages rather than the estimated figures may
be more reliable in the present study.
CONCLUSION
Native Americans show stronger genetic affinities to
Northeast Asians than the other major populations in the
world. The genetic link between Native Americans and
East Asians are supported by the distribution patterns of
characteristic HLA alleles and haplotypes.
Ainu, the
indigenous population in North Japan, is a key population:
their HLA profiles are intermediate between Amerindians
and the majority of Northeast Asians and they
are considered to be relatively pure descendants of Upper
Paleolithic people in East Asia.
Edited by Chanpuru, 31 January 2011 - 12:51 PM.
This topic is locked
