East Asia genetic links

I should perhaps warn Piotr against reading the following, since it
has been taken from a book for to read which his life is too short.

Stephen Oppenheimer: Eden in the East

7

Orang Asli: Originals

The genetic evidence for the spread of people from Southeast Asia
round the Pacific Rim points back to two Aboriginal areas, Sabah in
northeast Borneo and the jungles of the Malay peninsula. Part of the
reason these areas keep cropping up is the selectivity of the genetic
studies that have been done in the past. Sabah, for instance, an
Austronesian-speaking region on the eastern tip of Borneo, has
received attention because of its location in the supposed region of
Austronesian expansion further east from island Southeast Asia. The
Malay Peninsula region by contrast has some of the oldest and most
diverse representatives of both Austronesian and Austro-Asiatic-
speaking populations of mainland Southeast Asia.

Orang Asli - the original Asians

In the Malay Peninsula a group of non-Malay tribal groups live
traditional lifestyles in designated areas. Collectively called Orang
Asli,(1) they are deeply diverse linguistically, physically and
culturally, a fact not always acknowledged or specified at the
tabulations created by the big gene labs in the west. An excellent
ethnological description of these dwindling peoples is given by
Iskander Carey in his 1970s classic *Orang Asli*.(2) Carey, with
qualification, divides the Orang Asli tribes of the peninsula into
three very different ethnic groups. These are the Negritos in the
north , the Senoi in the middle and the Proto-Malays in the south ...
With some misclassification and overlap, the languages spoken by
these people can be accomodated in Carey's tri-partite ethnic
grouping. The Proto-Malays in the south speak Aboriginal Austronesian
tongues: the Negritos in the north speak northern Aslian tongues of
the Austro-Asiatic phylum; and the Senoi in the middle speak either
central Aslian or southern Aslian tongues of the Austro-Asiatic
family. The Austronesian Proto-Malay group in the south of the
Peninsula includes the Temuan I mentioned in the last chapter as
suffering from high rates of a mild inherited blood disorder
ovalocytosis.

Most genetic evidence linking Southeast Asia and the Pacific has come
from studies of the maternal mitochondrial (mt)DNA mutations in two
Aboriginal groups representing, respectively, mainland Austro-Asiatic
speakers and island Southeast Asian speakers. The former are the
middle Aboriginal group on the Malay Peninsula, the Senoi; the latter
live in Sabah in northeast Borneo. In these cases, three Aslian and
two Sabahan representatives nestle at early nodes in the five main
Southeast Asian branching networks,(3) with the coastal New Guinea
clans that I discussed in Chapter 6 and other Southeast Asian ethnic
groups, such as Vietnamesem, Malays and Taiwanese, on nearby but
later twigs.

The founder location of certain Orang Asli and Sabahan tribes on
Asian maternal DNA trees is repeated when we look at the spread north
and to the west of Malaysia. A more recent re-analysis of the same
Southeast Asian mtDNA types along with many Tibetan and Siberian
samples still has Aslian, and Sabahan Aboriginal maternal clans at
early nodes of major Aslian branches.(4) The Aslian mtDNA type 62,
also present in Malays and Taiwanese Aboriginals,(5) was identical
with a Tibetan type and apparently ancestral to various Vietnamese,
Taiwanese and Sabahan variants.(4) Of particular note among the seven
East Asian mtDNA families revealed by this analysis of Antonio
Tortoni and colleagues, based at the Università La Sapienza in Italy,
were their clusters B and E, which had clear roots in Southeast Asia.
(7)

Cluster B is defined as those with Asian 9-bp deletion and, as
previously mentioned, spreads from Melanesia round the Pacific Rim to
the Americas. As in the local Southeast Asian analysis, Torroni's
tree, which includes Tibetans and Siberians still has the same
Sabahan mtDNA type(8) at the root of the branching cluster. This
ancestral type is shared with the equivalent nodal type in Amerindian
(9) and coastal New Guinea (10) populations. An Aslian type(11) is
found nearby on Torroni's B branch, somewhat closer to the ancestral
node than Taiwanese Aboriginal, Korean, Sabahan, Malay, Tibetan and
southern Chinese types on the same cluster.

There is other evidence that could place the Senoi at the geographic
epicentre of the spread of the ancestral Asian 9-bp deletion type
round the Pacific Rim and up the great rivers into Tibet. This comes
from the analysis of the three substitutions in the control region of
mtDNA which I noted earlier. In Terry Melton's 1995 study the oldest
version of the 9-bp deletion or Asian grandmother is the only type
present in the Austro-Asiatic-speaking Senoi population, while later
variants are admixed in varying proportions in other Asian groups: 90
per cent of these Aboriginal grandmother types are also the commonest
9-bp deletion variant throughout Southeast Asia(12). This combined
evidence suggests the Austro-Asiatic-speaking Senoi of the Malay
Peninsula as a possible ancestral focus for all Asian populations
with the 9-bp deletion.

Melton's study also shows the Asian grandmother type penetrating
along with her daughter (the Southeast Asian mother) into southern
Indian populations. Further probes show, however, that the southern
Indian grandmother types are not identical with the Orang Asli types.
Instead, the South Indian population show great diversity in that
they share six different 9-bp deletion types with those found in
nearly every other region of Southeast Asia and South China except
the Malay Peninsula.(13) These links are predominantly with peoples
of island South Asia speaking Austronesian tongues. As there seems to
be no other evidence for the 9-bp deletion so far west in Asia, the
shared mtDNA types must reflect migrations from these regions
westwards to Sri Lanka and India rather than the other way round.
Notice, however, that the migrations appear to come more directly
from Austronesian-speaking stock than from Austro-Asiatic-speaking
Aboriginals of Southeast Asia, and perhaps a very long time ago in
view of the local South Indian diversity.

The picture for Antonio Torroni's other Southeast Asian maternal
mtDNA cluster F tells us more about Austro-Asiatic expansions. The
broad picture for group F(14) mtDNA links with the rest of Asia is
generally similar to that for group B, except that for F the evidence
points directly to the Aslian Austro-Asiatic speakers rather than
Austronesian speakers as an early and separate source of migrants
west east and north. Group F has two Orang Asli maternal marker types
right at its root.(15) The rest of the twigs of this branching
cluster are mainly composed of Vietnamese and Tibetan types, although
there are a couple from Malays, a Korean and a Siberian. The
genealogical primacy of the Aslian types over the Vietnamese in this
group supports the archaeolinguistic theory that there was a
southerly homeland of Austro-Asiatic speakers with spread north to
the Mon-Khmer speakers of Indo-China.(16) Another prediction of this
southern homeland hypothesis was that the Mon-Khmer speakers in the
eastern foothills of Tibet are refugees rather than stay-at-homes ...
This is also supported by the genetic tree.

The final prediction of the southern Austro-Asiatic homeland
hypothesis is that the migration of Austro-Asiatic speakers to India
went through the Strait of Malacca shortly after the rising sea
opened it over 8000 years ago. We should, on this argument, expect to
see genetic evidence in north India linking back to the Orang Asli
groups in the jungles of Malaya. Such is the case: the mtDNA marker 72
(17) characteristic of the Austro-Asiatic Aslian speakers is present
in northern but not southern India. A recent analysis of Indian mtDNA
types reveals not only multiple East Asian intrusion into the Indian
subcontinent, but a clear north-south division as well. Another
conclusion from this latter study is that the antiquity of East Asian
mtDNA markers in India suggests a very ancient migration west.(18)

Mothers and fathers move west!

The F maternal mtDNA cluster as defined by Tortoni and colleagues,
(19) also has two isolated cousins among Caucasian types (those in
Europe, the Middle East and most populations in the Indian
subcontinent). One of these comes from a group of Swedes and Finns.
(20) There is another Asian echo in Scandinavia. (21) Generally
Caucasian populations have completely different mtDNA from East
Asians, but independent evidence of Asian intrusions into Arctic
Europe comes from the paternal or Adam's Y chromosome. Tatiana Zergal
at the University of Oxford along with her colleagues have linked a
unique Asian Y chromosome mutation present in Uralic-speaking
populations in central Asia to the linguistically related Finns,
Estonians and Saami (Lapps) in northern Europe and Mari in northwest
Russia.(22) Several examples of the mutation also crop up in Norway,
suggesting local spread into Norse-speaking populations. From the
distribution of the mutation Zergal and her colleagues speculate an
origin in th Mongolia/China region. One individual has even been
found in Japan on the Pacific Rim. Their model suggests that an
originally Asian migrant group of males from central Asia retained
their Asian language and male chromosomes but replaced much of their
nuclear genetic characteristics with European genes in Finland,
Estonia and northwest Russia. The Saami, who can be traced back by
rock engravings to 4200 BC, may be genetically the closest survivors
to the first migrants from the East. A shamanistic culture, their
legends record such migrations.(23) Clearly those Asian genes linger
on in a much wider distribution of northeast Europe.

Curiously the Y chromosome evidence explains the remarkable
difference in appearance between the Europe-based Finno-Ugric
speakers and their linguistic cousins the Uralics from central and
north Asia - presumably because of the dilution of Asian nuclear
genetic characteristics in the former. There are other mtDNA links
between the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, but these are tenuous and
need further study.(25) The whole issue of Asian intrusions to Europe
during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, as evidenced by pottery styles
and "round-headed" skulls, has a long history and remains
controversial. It is outside the scope of this book.

I can now summarize the evidence from the Adam and Eve genetic
markers for an east-west spread as follows: the Asian 9-bp deletion
was carried to South India by the Southeast Asian mother, a woman who
may have spoken an Austronesian tongue. The group F maternal clans in
Antonio Torroni's classification, which are more clearly linked to
Austro-Asiatic speakers of the Asian mainland, spread radially north
into Indo-China and Tibet, and west into north India, as suggested by
the model in the previous chapter. The maternal and paternal trails
suggest possible further spreads of these people into Europe, either
via India or through central Asia. The hottest trails in this respect
are those to Finland and Sweden.

This suggestive evidence from the celibate Adam and Eve genes is
amply supported by study of the more promiscuous and prolific nuclear
genetic markers. Again, some of the best population-based evidence
comes from the genes coding for the haemoglobin molecule that carries
the oxygen in our blood.

1)"Orang" in Malay means man, whilw "Asli" means original.

2) Iskander Carey: *Orang Asli: The Aboriginal tribes of Penisular
Malaysia*, Oxford University Press, 1976. 3) The five mtDNA types 62,
71, 54 and 18 at the bases of clusters F, A, D, D* and E,
respectively, in Figures 2 and 3 in S. W. Ballinger et al. "South
East Asian Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Reveals Genetic Continuity of
Ancient Mongolian migration", in Genetic, vol. 130, 1991, pp. 139-52.
Haplogroups E, A, D, D* and E correspond with New Guinea matricalans
1-7, 17, (17), 11 and 9 respectively in Mark Stoneking et
al., "Geographic Variation in Human Mitochondrial DNA from Papua New
Guinea", in Genetics, vol. 114, 1990, pp. 717-33. Close links also
exist between Southeast Asian haplogroup G and New Guinean matriclan
9; see Ballinger et al. ibid.

4) Antonio Torroni et al. "Mitochondrial Analysis in Tibet:
Implications for the Origins of the Tibetan Population and in
Adaptation to High Altitude", in American Journal of Physical
Anthropology, vol 93, 1994, pp. 189-99. The broad division between
mainland Southeast Asians including the Senoi and island Southeast
Asians including Borneans, corresponds with groups A and B in a
similar division based on nuclear genetic markers obtained by L. Luca
Cavalli-Sforza and colleagues in their authoritative The History and
Geography of Human Genes (abridged paperback 1996, Princeton
Univerdity Press: pp. 134-138). Group C correspoded with negritos.

5) Ballinger, op. cit., pp. 139-52.

6) Torroni et al., pp. 189-99.

7) Haplogroups B and F, in Ibid., p. 196

8) Type 54 in Ballinger, op. cit., p. 141.

9) Type 13 in group B in Torroni et al. "Native American
Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Indicates that the Amerind and the Nadene
Populations were Founded by two Independent Migrations", in Genetics
vol. 130, 1992, op. cit., pp. 153-62.

10) Type P119 in Mark Stoneking et al. "Geographical Variation in
Human Mitochondrial DNA From Papua New Guinea", in Genetics, vol.
114, 1990, pp. 717-33.

11) Type AS79 from Ballinger, op. cit., pp. 139-52.

12) Table A1 in Terry Melton et al. "Polynesian Genetic Affinities
with Southeast Asian Populations as Identified by mtDNA Analysis", in
Am. J. Hum. Gen., vol. 57, 1995, pp. 412-13.

13) Table AI in ibid., pp. 412-13.

14) As defined in Torroni et al., op. cit. p. 196.

15) Types AS72 and AS71 in Torroni, ibid., p. 195.

16) See Chapter 5 for further details.

17) Type AS72 in Torroni et al., op. cit., p. 195

18) S. Barnabas et al. "Human Evolution: The Study of Indian
Mitochondrial DNA", in Naturwissenschaften, vol. 83, 1996, pp 28-9.

19) Torroni et al., op. cit. p 196.

20) Type 108 in Torroni et al. "MtDNA and the origin of Caucasians:
Identification of Ancient Caucasian-specific Haplgroups, One of Which
is Prone to a Recurrent Somatic Duplication in the D-Loop Region",
American Journal of Human Genetics vol. 55, 1994, pp. 760-76, and
type 21, haplogroup T, in Torroni et al. "Classification of European
mtDNAs from an Analysis of Three European Populations", in Genetics,
vol. 144, 1996, pp. 1835-50.

21) "Asian" haplotype M, in Antonio Torroni et al., "Classification
of European mtDNAs from Analysis of Three European Populations", in
Genetics, vol. 144, 1996, pp. 1835-50.

22) The 'C' allele in Tatiana Zergal et al. "Genetic Relationship of
Asians and Northern Europeans, Revealed by Y-Chromosomal DNA
Analysis" in Am. J. Hum. Gen., vol. 60, 1997, pp. 1174-83.

23) Inger Zachisson, "Oral Traditions, Archaeology and Linguistics:
the Early History of the Saami in Scandinavia", in Roger Blench and
Matthew Spriggs (eds.), Archaeology and Language I: Theoretical and
Methodological Orientation, Routledge, London, 1997, pp. 371-6.

24) See Chapter 12 for further details.

25) In Bryan Sykes et al. "The Origin of the Polynesians: An
Interpretation from Mitochondrial Lineage Analysis", in American
Journal of Human Genetics, vol. 57, 1995, pp. 1463-75. See also:
Group 3A in M. Richards et al. "Paleolithic and Neolithic Lineages in
the European Mitochondrial Gene Pool", in American Journal of Human
Genetics, vol. 59, 1996, pp. 185-203.

Torsten