The Peopling of Lakshadweep Archipelago

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2019 May 8

PMID 31061397

Citations 3

Authors

Mohammed S Mustak

Niraj Rai

Mohan Rao Naveen

Satya Prakash

S Justin Carlus

Nagarjuna Pasupuleti

Anshika Srivastava

Prajjval Pratap Singh

Idrees Babu

Pavan Kumar Dubey

Gyaneshwer Chaubey

Kumarasamy Thangaraj

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The archipelago of Lakshadweep is considered as a stopover to the maritime route since ancient time. It is not very clear when the human first occupied these islands, however in the long history of the islands, the local legends suggest that Lakshadweep has been ruled by different kingdoms. To have a better understanding of peopling of Lakshadweep, we have analysed 557 individuals from eight major islands for mitochondrial DNA and 166 individuals for Y chromosome markers. We found a strong founder effect for both paternal and maternal lineages. Moreover, we report a close genetic link of Lakshadweep islanders with the Maldives, Sri Lanka and India. Most of the Lakshadweep islands share the haplogroups specific to South Asia and West Eurasia, except Minicoy Island that also shares haplogroups of East Eurasia. The paternal and maternal ancestries of the majority of island populations suggest their arrival from distinct sources. We found that the maternal ancestry was closer to South Indian populations, whereas the paternal ancestry was overwhelmed with the haplogroups, more common in the Maldives and North of India. In conclusion, our first genetic data suggest that the majority of human ancestry in Lakshadweep is largely derived from South Asia with minor influences from East and West Eurasia.

Citing Articles

The maternal U1 haplogroup in the Koraga tribe as a correlate of their North Dravidian linguistic affinity.

Sequeira J, Vinuthalakshmi K, Das R, van Driem G, Mustak M Front Genet. 2024; 14:1303628.

PMID: 38384360 PMC: 10880486. DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2023.1303628.

Genetic evidence for a single founding population of the Lakshadweep Islands.

Kumar S, Singh P, Pasupuleti N, Shendre S, Sequeira J, Babu I Mol Genet Genomics. 2024; 299(1):8.

PMID: 38374307 DOI: 10.1007/s00438-024-02110-z.

Island biogeography and human practices drive ecological connectivity in mosquito species richness in the Lakshadweep Archipelago.

P M, P D R, G S, K A, K S, A S Sci Rep. 2022; 12(1):8060.

PMID: 35577864 PMC: 9110355. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-11898-y.

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