Genetic Evidence for Recent Population Mixture in India

• Main Authors: Moorjani, Priya (Author), Thangaraj, Kumarasamy (Author), Patterson, Nick (Author), Lipson, Mark (Contributor), Loh, Po-Ru (Contributor), Govindaraj, Periyasamy (Author), Berger, Bonnie (Contributor), Reich, David (Author), Singh, Lalji (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier, 2014-12-19T19:48:19Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Most Indian groups descend from a mixture of two genetically divergent populations: Ancestral North Indians (ANI) related to Central Asians, Middle Easterners, Caucasians, and Europeans; and Ancestral South Indians (ASI) not closely related to groups outside the subcontinent. The date of mixture is unknown but has implications for understanding Indian history. We report genome-wide data from 73 groups from the Indian subcontinent and analyze linkage disequilibrium to estimate ANI-ASI mixture dates ranging from about 1,900 to 4,200 years ago. In a subset of groups, 100% of the mixture is consistent with having occurred during this period. These results show that India experienced a demographic transformation several thousand years ago, from a region in which major population mixture was common to one in which mixture even between closely related groups became rare because of a shift to endogamy.
National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowship