Population structure and history in East Asia

Abstract

Archaeological, anatomical, linguistic, and genetic data have suggested that there is an old and significant boundary between the populations of north and south China. We use three human genetic marker systems and one human-carried virus to examine the north/south distinction. We find no support for a major north/south division in these markers; rather, the marker patterns suggest simple isolation by distance.

Figure 1

Map of sampled locations for mtDNA and STR loci. Data for other loci were assembled entirely from earlier studies (see Materials and Methods).

Figure 2

Principal components maps. For each map, the x axis is the first and the y axis the second principal component. Northern populations are indicated by open and southern populations by closed circles.