Abstract
Perelik, Solang, and Mouk villages are located in Balopa islands of Papua New Guinea (PNG). It is known that languages spoken in Balopa belong to the same family of Austronesian languages, but the language of Mouk is different from others at a sub-family level. Most of Balopa islanders have subsisted mainly on horticulture and reef fishing, while Mouk villagers have depended on fishing and trading. In order to investigate the genetic similarities among Balopa islanders and their affinities to other Oceanian populations, HLA-DRB1 polymorphism was investigated in 98 individuals living in Perelik, Solang, and Mouk. The predominant HLA-DRB1 alleles in Balopa islands were HLA-DRB1*1502 and *1101. Interestingly, Mouk showed a similar distribution of DRB1 alleles to Solang despite their different language and subsistence. Genetic distance calculations and correspondence analysis based on DRB1 allele frequencies suggested that Balopa islanders genetically belong to Austronesians in Melanesia and are distant from other Austronesians in Micronesia or Polynesia.
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