17. Apr 2019

Unveiling the genetic history and adaptation of the Maniq, primary hunter-gatherers in Southeast Asia

Datum: 17. April 2019 | 12:30 – 13:30
Sprecher: Helmut Schaschl, University of Vienna
Veranstaltungsort: I22 Lakeside View (I22.01)

Southeast Asia represents a key region for the study of hominin evolution and interaction. Various indigenous human populations that show huge morphological, anthropological, and linguistic diversity inhabit this region today. However, we have only limited knowledge about the evolutionary history of these populations. The indigenous people of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia are called Orang Asli. Part of these indigenous populations are the Maniq, who are hunter-gatherer, living in the rainforest of Southern Thailand. The Maniq are special because they are one of the few remaining primary hunter-gatherer societies in our time. We have recently started a project with the Maniq to understand their genetic ancestry, examine their genetic diversity, and how they fit into the population landscape in Asia. Furthermore, we aim to understand the evolutionary response to different environments in in both huntergatherers and agriculturalist populations. Working with the Maniq offers a major opportunity to test hypotheses about mechanisms and processes of human adaptation to diverse and changing environments, and has the potential to provide novel insights into the evolutionary histories of phenotypic traits in pre-agricultural human populations. In a preliminary study, we analysed 10 unrelated individuals using the Infinium Omni2.5-8 Exome v1.3 BeadChip that gives us information on approximately 2.6 million markers from autosomes, sex chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA. I will present our first results (PCAs, TreeMix and Fst) from our autosomal data on the Maniq in reference to selected populations, and preliminary data on scans for strong positive selection on stature-related loci and immunogenetic genes.