CCMB genetic study: Lakshadweep islanders linked to South Asia, not part of early human migration from Africa and Eurasia

HYDERABAD: City-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology scientists who conducted genetic studies on the people living in eight islands of Lakshadweep found the islanders have close genetic links with India, Maldives and Srilanka in South Asia. It indicated that Lakshadweep was not party early human migration from Africa and Eurasia.
A team of researchers of CSIR-CCMB led by Dr. K Thangaraj did a genetic study on the Lakshadweep islanders for the first time.
The research paper was published on May 6 in Nature’s Scientific Reports journal.Researchers so far genetic studies have not to be done in Lakshwadeep’s eight major islands Agatti, Andorth, Bitra, Chetlat, Kadmat, Kalpeni, Kiltan and Minicoy.
The genetic study suggested that the majority of human ancestry in Lakshadweep is largely derived from South Asia with minor influences from East and West Eurasia.
CCMB Chief Scientist Dr Thangaraj said “Our earlier studies we have established that early human migration from Africa to Andaman and Australia happened through the western cost of India. So, we presumed that the Lakshadweep islands might have played a major role in early human migration and expected the presence of genetic signatures of ancient people, such as Andamanese and Australian aboriginals. However. We could find no evidence of early human migration through the Lakshadweep islands."
CCMB scientists analysed DNA samples of 557 individuals from 8 major islands for mitochondrial DNA and 166 individuals for Y chromosome markers. Dr M S Mustak the first author of the study and associate professor of Department of Zoology in Mangalore University said “We found a strong founder effect for both paternal and maternal lineages – a sign that the island population had limited genetic mixing”.
“Even after regular historic interactions with people from different regions of the world, it is extremely interesting that we could see only limited number of founders,” said Dr Gyaneshwer Chaubey, one of the senior authors and a Professor at Banaras Hindu University.
Dr. Rakesh K. Mishra, Director, CCMB said that this first genetic study on Lakshadweep islanders would lead to study their health profiles in the near future.