Citation:
Moorjani P, Thangaraj K, Patterson N, Lipson M, Loh P-R, Govindaraj P, Berger B, Reich D, Singh L. Genetic evidence for recent population mixture in India. Am J Hum Genet 2013;93(3):422-38.
Date Published:
2013 Sep 05
Abstract:
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.
Last updated on 08/06/2017