Genetic Architecture of Southeast-coastal Indian tribal populations: A Y-chromosomal phylogenetic analysis

Abstract

Background: Y chromosome single nucleotide polymorphisms (Y-SNPs) are useful markers for reconstructing male lineages, haplogroup determinations, and paternity identifications. Since Y chromosome lacks recombination, the haplogroups of this series show a greater extent of diverse genome-specific geographical distributions and these haplogroups have been found to play a major role in forensic investigations and population genetics. Materials and methods: The present study is aimed at determining the Y chromosomal phylogeny of two southeast coastal Indian tribal populations (Porja and Savara; N = 217), using a set of 15 bi-allelic markers on the non-recombining region of Y chromosome, representing two Austro-Asiatic (AA) language speaking populations. Results and conclusions: The phylogenetic analysis revealed four paternal haplogroups, viz., H1*-M52, H1a*-M82, O2a*-M95, and R2-M124, with high frequency (84.79%) represented by the Austro-Asiatic-specific haplogroup O2a* (M95), confirming to the fact of O2a* haplogroup being the paternal signature of AA language family of Southeast Asians.