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MBE Advance Access published online on August 21, 2006
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msl093
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© 2006 The Authors This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Accepted August 16, 2006

Research Article

Melanesian and Asian Origins of Polynesians: mtDNA and Y-chromosome Gradients Across the Pacific

Manfred Kayser 1 *, Silke Brauer 2, Richard Cordaux 3, Amanda Casto 4, Oscar Lao 5, Lev A. Zhivotovsky 6, Claire Moyse-Faurie 7, Robb B. Rutledge 8, Wulf Schiefenhoevel 9, David Gil 10, Alice A. Lin 11, Peter A. Underhill 11, Peter J. Oefner 12, Ronald J. Trent 13, and Mark Stoneking 4

1 Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany; Department of Forensic Molecular Biology, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2 Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany; Department of Forensic Molecular Biology, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Biology, The Netherlands Forensic Institute, The Hague, Netherlands
3 Department of Biological Sciences, Biological Computation and Visualization Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.A.
4 Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
5 Department of Forensic Molecular Biology, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Biology, The Netherlands Forensic Institute, The Hague, Netherlands
6 N.I. Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
7 Laboratoire des langues et civilisations à tradition orale, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Villejuif, France
8 Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, U.S.A.
9 Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology, Andechs, Germany
10 Department of Linguistics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
11 Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, U.S.A.
12 Institute of Functional Genomics, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
13 Department of Molecular & Clinical Genetics, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Central Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Australia

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Manfred Kayser, E-mail: m.kayser{at}erasmusmc.nl


  Abstract

The human settlement of the Pacific Islands represents one of the most recent major migration events of mankind. Polynesians originated in Asia according to linguistic evidence or in Melanesia according to archaeological evidence. To shed light on the genetic origins of Polynesians we investigated over 400 Polynesians from eight island groups, in comparison with over 900 individuals from potential parental populations of Melanesia, Southeast and East Asia, and Australia, by means of Y-chromosome (NRY) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers. Overall, we classified 94.1% of Polynesian Y-chromosomes and 99.8% of Polynesian mtDNAs as of either Melanesian (NRY-DNA: 65.8%, mtDNA: 6%) or Asian (NRY-DNA: 28.3%, mtDNA: 93.8%) origin, suggesting a dual genetic origin of Polynesians in agreement with the "Slow Boat" hypothesis. Our data suggest a pronounced admixture bias in Polynesians towards more Melanesian men than women, perhaps as a result of matrilocal residence in the ancestral Polynesian society. Although dating methods are consistent with somewhat similar entries of NRY/mtDNA haplogroups into Polynesia, haplotype sharing suggests an earlier appearance of Melanesian haplogroups than those from Asia. Surprisingly, we identified gradients in the frequency distribution of some NRY/mtDNA haplogroups across Polynesia and a gradual west to east decrease of overall NRY/mtDNA diversity, not only providing evidence for a west-to-east direction of Polynesian settlements but also suggesting that Pacific voyaging was regular rather than haphazard. We also demonstrate that Fiji played a pivotal role in the history of Polynesia: humans probably first migrated to Fiji, and subsequent settlement of Polynesia probably came from Fiji.

Keywords: Polynesia; Y-chromosome; mtDNA; genetic origins; Human population history.
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