Multi-layered population structure in Island Southeast Asians

The history of human settlement in Southeast Asia has been complex and involved several distinct dispersal events. Here we report the analyses of 1825 individuals from Southeast Asia including new genome-wide genotype data for 146 individuals from three Mainland Southeast Asian (Burmese, Malay and Vietnamese) and four Island Southeast Asian (Dusun, Filipino, Kankanaey and Murut) populations. While confirming the presence of previously recognized major ancestry components in the Southeast Asian population structure, we highlight the Kankanaey Igorots from the highlands of the Philippine Mountain Province as likely the closest living representatives of the source population that may have given rise to the Austronesianexpansion. This conclusion rests on independent evidence from various analyses of autosomal data and uniparental markers. Given the extensive presence of trade goods, cultural and linguistic evidence of Indian influence in Southeast Asia starting from 2.5kya we also detect traces of a South Asian signature in different populations in the region dating to the last couple of thousand years.

• Type: Other
• Archiver: European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA)