Neolithic to Bronze Age human maternal genetic history in Yunnan, China

Xinyu Wei; Ming Zhang; Rui Min; Zhilong Jiang; Jiayang Xue; Zhonghua Zhu; Haibing Yuan; Xiaorui Li; Dongyue Zhao; Peng Cao; Feng Liu; Qingyan Dai; Xiaotian Feng; Ruowei Yang; Xiaohong Wu; Changcheng Hu; Minmin Ma; Xu Liu; Yang Wan; Fan Yang; Ranchao Zhou; Lihong Kang; Guanghui Dong; Wanjing Ping; Tianyi Wang; Bo Miao; Fan Bai; Yuxin Zheng; Yuxiao Liu; Melinda A Yang; Wenjun Wang; E Andrew Bennett; Qiaomei Fu

doi:10.1016/j.jgg.2024.09.013

Neolithic to Bronze Age human maternal genetic history in Yunnan, China

J Genet Genomics. 2024 Sep 27:S1673-8527(24)00251-0. doi: 10.1016/j.jgg.2024.09.013. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Xinyu Wei¹, Ming Zhang¹, Rui Min², Zhilong Jiang², Jiayang Xue³, Zhonghua Zhu², Haibing Yuan⁴, Xiaorui Li², Dongyue Zhao⁵, Peng Cao⁶, Feng Liu⁶, Qingyan Dai⁶, Xiaotian Feng⁶, Ruowei Yang⁶, Xiaohong Wu⁷, Changcheng Hu², Minmin Ma⁸, Xu Liu⁹, Yang Wan², Fan Yang², Ranchao Zhou², Lihong Kang², Guanghui Dong⁸, Wanjing Ping⁶, Tianyi Wang³, Bo Miao¹⁰, Fan Bai³, Yuxin Zheng¹⁰, Yuxiao Liu¹¹, Melinda A Yang¹², Wenjun Wang¹³, E Andrew Bennett¹⁴, Qiaomei Fu¹⁵

Affiliations

¹ China-Central Asia "the Belt and Road" Joint Laboratory on Human and Environment Research, Key Laboratory of Cultural Heritage Research and Conservation, School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710127, China; Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
² Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Kunming, Yunnan 650118, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China; College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ Center for Archaeological Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610064, China.
⁵ China-Central Asia "the Belt and Road" Joint Laboratory on Human and Environment Research, Key Laboratory of Cultural Heritage Research and Conservation, School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710127, China.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
⁷ School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China.
⁹ Yunnan Museum, Kunming, Yunnan 650206, China.
¹⁰ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China; College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710069, China.
¹¹ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China; Sino-Danish Center, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
¹² Department of Biology, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹³ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China; Science and Technology Archaeology, National Centre for Archaeology, Beijing 100013, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹⁴ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹⁵ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China; College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39343094
DOI: 10.1016/j.jgg.2024.09.013

Abstract

Yunnan in southwest China is a geographically and ethnically complex region at the intersection of southern China and Southeast Asia, and a focal point for human migrations. To clarify its maternal genetic history, we generated 152 complete mitogenomes from 17 Yunnan archaeological sites. Our results reveal distinct genetic histories segregated by geographical regions. Maternal lineages of ancient populations from northwestern and northern Yunnan exhibit closer affinities with past and present-day populations from northern East Asia and Xizang, providing important genetic evidence for the migration and interaction of populations along the Tibetan-Yi corridor since the Neolithic. Between 5500 and 1800 years ago, central Yunnan populations maintained their internal genetic relationships, including a 7000-year-old basal lineage of the rare and widely dispersed haplogroup M61. At the Xingyi site, changes in mitochondrial DNA haplogroups occurred between the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, with haplogroups shifting from those predominant in the Yellow River region to those predominant in coastal southern China. These results highlight the high diversity of Yunnan populations during the Neolithic to Bronze Age.

Keywords: Ancient DNA; Bronze age; Genetic history; Mitochondrial genomes; Neolithic; Yunnan.