Neighbor-joining network of genetic distances among caste communities estimated from 40 Alu polymorphisms. Distances between upper castes (U; Brahmin, Vysya, Kshatriya), middle castes (M; Yadava, Kapu), and lower castes (L; Mala, Madiga, Relli) are significantly correlated with social rank.
Our analysis of 40 autosomal markers indicates clearly that the upper castes have a higher affinity to Europeans than to Asians. The high affinity of caste Y chromosomes with those of Europeans suggests that the majority of immigrating West Eurasians may have been males. As might be expected if West Eurasian males appropriated the highest positions in the caste system, the upper caste group exhibits a lower genetic distance to Europeans than the middle or lower castes. This is underscored by the observation that the Kshatriya (an upper caste), whose members served as warriors, are closer to Europeans than any other caste (data not shown). Furthermore, the 32-bp deletion polymorphism in CC chemokine receptor 5, whose frequency peaks in populations of Eastern Europe, is found only in two Brahmin males (M. Bamshad and S.K. Ahuja, unpubl.). The stratification of Y-chromosome distances with Europeans could also be caused by male-specific gene flow among caste populations of different rank. However, we and others have demonstrated that there is little sharing of Y-chromosome haplotypes among castes of different rank
from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC311057/
No comments:
Post a Comment