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Taiwan
Wednesday 28 September 2005
Studies of mtDNA variation in indigenous Taiwanese populations have suggested that they held an ancestral position in the spread of mtDNAs throughout Southeast Asia and Oceania. (9837834)
To search for Asian roots for indigenous Taiwanese populations, 28 mtDNAs representative of variation in four tribal groups (Ami, Atayal, Bunun, and Paiwan) were sequenced and were compared with each other and with mtDNAs from 25 other populations from Asia and Oceania. (9837834)
mtDNAs with a 9-bp deletion have considerable mainland-Asian diversity and have spread to Southeast Asia and Oceania through a Taiwanese bottleneck. (9837834)
Only four Taiwanese mtDNA haplotypes without the 9-bp deletion were shared with any other populations, but these shared types were widely dispersed geographically throughout mainland Asia. (9837834)
The Taiwanese have temporally deep roots, probably in central or south China, and have been isolated from other Asian populations in recent history. (9837834)
References
Melton T, Clifford S, Martinson J, Batzer M, Stoneking M. Genetic evidence for the proto-Austronesian homeland in Asia: mtDNA and nuclear DNA variation in Taiwanese aboriginal tribes. Am J Hum Genet. 1998 Dec;63(6):1807-23. PMID: 9837834
