HENRY

A new paper from Manfred Kayser’s group - Patterns of Y-chromosome Diversity Intersect with the Trans-New Guinea Hypothesis:

The island of New Guinea received part of the first human expansion out of Africa (> 40.000 years ago), but its human genetic history remains poorly understood. In this study, we examined Y-chromosome diversity in 162 samples from the Bird’s Head region of northwest New Guinea, and compared the results with previously obtained data from other parts of the island.

Northwest New Guinea harbours a high level of cultural and linguistic diversity and is inhabited by non-Austronesian (i.e. Papuan) speaking groups as well as harbouring most of West New Guinea’s Austronesian-speaking groups. However, 97.5% of its Y-chromosomes belong to five haplogroups that originated in Melanesia; hence, the Y-chromosome diversity of northwest New Guinea (and, according to available data, of New Guinea as a whole) essentially reflects a local history. The remaining 2.5% belong to two haplogroups (O-M119 and O-M122) of East Asian origin, which were brought to New Guinea by Austronesian-speaking migrants around 3,500 years ago.

Thus, the Austronesian expansion had only a small impact on shaping Y-chromosome diversity in northwest New Guinea, although the linguistic impact of this expansion to this region was much higher. In contrast, the expansion of Trans-New Guinea speakers (non-Austronesian) starting about 6,000-10,000 years ago from the central highlands of what is now Papua New Guinea, presumably in combination with the expansion of agriculture, played a more important role in determining the Y-chromosome diversity of New Guinea. In particular, we identified two haplogroups (M-P34 and K-M254) as suggestive markers for the Trans-New Guinea expansion, whereas two other haplogroups (C-M38 and K-M9) most likely reflect the earlier local Y-chromosome diversity. We propose that sex-biased differences in the social structure and cultural heritage of the people involved in the Austronesian and the Trans-New Guinea expansions played an important role (among other factors) in shaping the New Guinean Y-chromosome landscape.

Posted on September 13th, 2007 by Simon Greenhill