Monday, October 29, 2007

Maternal Ancestry of Malayalis - I

My maternal clan is mtDNA haplogroup M*. Well, that is not much of an information. Unfortunately, deep subclades of macrohaplogroup M are not studied extensively. So, I need to wait some more time until I find my HVRI and HVR-II results matching a defined subclade of M.

I am listing Malayali matrilineages that I have come across in various studies (almost all from Tartu school data). Also, I have tried to define certain Malayali matrilineages that I have come across at mitosearch.org page based on their HVR-I motif. I may or may not be accurate.

I have observed certain haplogroups are exclusively found among tribes and certain among castes. But I am combining all of them together as that could be the result of uneven sampling, a problem that is responsible for inconsistencies between studies. Also, I am going to list out the most common HVR-I motif.

Haplogroup - HVR-I Motif
M Derived:
M*
M25 - 223-304
M33 - 169-172-223 (!)
M2 - 223-319
M2a - 223-270-274-319-352
M2b - 223-274-319
M3 - 126-185-223
M3b - 126-223
M5 - 129-223
M8 - 129-134-213-223-240-298-362
M8C - 223-239-298-327-357(?)
N Derived:
N1d - 223-356 (!)
R*
B5a - 140-189-266A
R21 - 126-181-209
R5 - 266
R6 - 129-213-274-319-362
U1 - 189-249 (1)
U1a - 93-129-189
U2 - 51-168-249
U2a - 51-206C
U2b - 51-209-239-352-353
U2c - 51-148-179-240C
U4 - 189-356
U7 - 172-309-318T

Though my haplogroup motif has been observed among Keralites and other Indians its subclade identity has not been defined.

(!) My assignment
(?) strange nomenclature..omitted couple of others
Notes:
1. I think this must be wrongly assigned.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

B5a is an East Asian marker, but R21? That is a pre neolithic Malaysian marker!

VM Weber said...

Ibra,
Sorry, I was away from computer for the last two weeks.

Well, R21 may be a wrong assignment (anyway, it is a putative assignment in the Kivisild et al. excel sheet).

Malaysian R21 appears to be 304-168-295. (Hill et al. 2006)

However, Indian B5a motif appear similar (189-140-266) to South China/S E Asian one.

Chinese came to Kerala as traders (but not sure about SE Asians though Tamil region had an active trading relationship with that region). I wonder whether Chinese ships had female crew!

From Hill et al. 2006, aboriginal S E Asians have mutation 266G whereas Malayali-s have 266A (which is true for southern China B5a). How significant that could be?