Biology subjects

He, G. G.

Publications and source records attributed to He, G. G..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Malaria resistance-related biological adaptation and complex evolutionary footprints of Tai-Kadai people inferred from 796 genomes

Pathogen-host adaptative interaction and complex population demographical processes, including admixture, drift and Darwen selection, have considerably shaped the Neolithic-to-Modern Western Eurasian population structure and genetic susceptibility to modern human diseases. However, the genetic footprints of evolutionary events in East Asia keep unknown as the underrepresentation of genomic diversity and the design of large-scale population studies. We reported one aggregated database of genome-wide-SNP variations from 796 Tai-Kadai (TK) genomes, including Bouyei first reported here, to explore the genetic history, population structure and biological adaptative features of TK-speaking people from Southern China and Southeast Asia. We found geography-related population substructure among TK-speaking people using the state-of-the-art population genetic structure reconstruction techniques based on the allele frequency spectrum and haplotype-resolved phased fragments. We found that the Northern TK-speaking people from Guizhou harboured one TK-dominant ancestry maximised in Bouyei people, and the Southern one from Thailand obtained more influences from Southeast Asians and indigenous people. We reconstructed the fitted admixture models and demographic graphs, which showed that TK-speaking people received gene flow from ancient rice farmer-related lineages related to the Hmong-Mien and Austroasiatic people and Northern millet farmers associated with the Sino-Tibetan people. Biological adaptation focused on our identified unique TK lineages related to Bouyei showed many adaptive signatures conferring Malaria resistance and low-rate lipid metabolism. Further gene enrichment, the allele frequency distribution of derived alleles, and their correlation with the incidence of Malaria further confirmed that CR1 played an essential role in the resistance of Malaria in the ancient "Baiyue" tribes.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2023

Whole-genome sequencing of ethnolinguistic diverse northwestern Chinese Hexi Corridor people from the 10K_CPGDP project suggested the differentiated East-West genetic admixture along the Silk Road and their biological adaptations

The ancient Silk Road served as the main connection between East and West Eurasia for several centuries. At any rate, the genetic exchange between populations along the ancient Silk Road was likely to leave traces on the contemporary gene pool of local people in Northwest China, which was the passage of the Northern Silk Road. However, genetic sources from northwestern China are under-represented in the current population-scale genomic database. To characterize the genetic architecture and adaptative history of the Northern Silk Road ethnic populations, we performed whole-genome sequencing on 126 individuals from six ethnolinguistic groups (Tibeto-Burman (TB)-speaking Tibetan, Mongolic (MG)-speaking Dongxiang/Tu/eastern Yugur, and Turkic (TK)-speaking Salar/western Yugur) living in Gansu and Qinghai in the 10K Chinese people Genomic Diversity Project (10K_CPGDP). We observed ethnicity-related differentiated population structures among these geographically close Northwest Chinese populations, that is, Salar and Tu people showed a close affinity with southwestern TB groups, and other studied populations shared more alleles with MG and Tungusic groups. Overall, the patterns of genetic clustering were not consistent with linguistic classifications. We estimated that Dongxiang, Tibetan, and Yugur people inherited more than 10% West Eurasian ancestry, much higher than that of Salar and Tu people (<7%). Hence, the difference in the proportion of West Eurasian ancestry has primarily contributed to the genetic divergence of geographically close Northwest Chinese populations. The signatures of natural selection were identified in genes associated with cardiovascular system diseases or lipid metabolism related to triglyceride levels (e.g., PRIM2, PDE4DIP, NOTCH2, DDAH1, GALNT2, and MLIP) and developmental and neurogenetic diseases (e.g., NBPFs 8/9/20/25P, etc.). Moreover, the EPAS1 gene, a transcription factor regulating hypoxia response, showed relatively high PBS values in our studied groups. The sex-biased admixture history, in which the West Eurasian ancestry was introduced primarily by males, was identified in Dongxiang, Tibetan, and Yugur populations. We determined that the eastern-western admixture occurred [~]783-1131 years ago, coinciding with the intensive economic and cultural exchanges during the historic Trans-Eurasian cultural exchange era.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2021

The genomic formation of Tanka people, an isolated 'Gypsies in water' in the coastal region of Southeast China

ObjectivesThree different hypotheses proposed via the controversial evidence from cultural, anthropological and uniparental genetic analysis respectively stated that Tanka people probably originated from Han Chinese, ancient Baiyue tribe, or the admixture of them. Therefore, the genetic origin and admixture history of the Tanka people, an isolated "Gypsies in water" in the coastal region of Southeast China, are needed to be genetically clarified. Materials and methodsTo elucidate the genetic origin of the Southeast Tanka people and explore their genetic relationship with surrounding indigenous Tai-Kadai and Austronesian people and Neolithic-to-historic ancients from the Yellow River Basin (YRB) and Fujian, we conducted a large-scale population genomic study among 1498 modern and ancient Eurasians, in which 73 Tanka and 4 Han people were first reported here. Both allele-shared and haplotype-based statistical methods were used here, including PCA, ADMIXTURE, f-statistics, ALDER, qpGraph-/TreeMix and qpAdm/qpWave, ChromoPainter and FineSTRUCTURE ResultsWe found a specific genetic cline in PCA plots and detected the Tanka-specific homogeneous ancestry in model-based ADMIXTURE results, suggesting differentiated demographic history between Tanka and surrounding Hans. Formal tests based on sharing allele patterns showed a close relationship between Tanka people and Han Chinese, but the Tanka population harbored more southern East Asian ancestry related to Austronesian and Tai-Kadai people compared with southern Hans. Besides, the reconstructed differentiated demographic history revealed that southern Xinshizhou Tanka harbored more ancestry related to the Tai-Kadai or coastal ancient Neolithic to Bronze Age East Asians compared with northern Shacheng Tanka. The qpGraph-/TreeMix-based phylogenetic framework, qpAdm/qpWave-based admixture modeling and FineSTRUCTURE-based dendrogram among ancient northern and southern East Asians further demonstrated that the primary ancestry of modern Tanka derived from ancient millet farmers in the YRB with additional admixture from multiple southern East Asian sources. DiscussionSharing ancestry estimated from the f-statistics and sharing haplotypic landscape inferred from the ChromoPainter and FineSTRUCTURE showed that Southeast Tanka people not only had a close genetic relationship with both Northern Hans and YRB millet farmers but also possessed more southern East Asian ancestry related to Austronesian, Tai-Kadai and Hmong-Mien people. Our genomic data and fitted admixture models supported modern Tanka originated from ancient North China and obtained additional gene flow from ancient southern East Asians in the processes of southward migrations.

genetics↗