Abstract
BackgroundDistinct, partly competing, “waves” have been proposed to explain human migration in(to) today’s Island Southeast Asia and Australia based on genetic (and other) evidence. The paucity of high quality and high resolution data has impeded insights so far. In this study, one of the first in a forensic environment, we used the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine (PGM) for generating complete mitogenome sequences via stand-alone massively parallel sequencing and describe a standard data validation practice.ResultsIn this first representative investigation on the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation of East Timor (Timor-Leste) population including >300 individuals, we put special emphasis on the reconstruction of the initial settlement, in particular on the previously poorly resolved haplogroup P1, an indigenous lineage of the Southwest Pacific region. Our results suggest a colonization of southern Sahul (Australia) >37 kya, limited subsequent exchange, and a parallel incubation of initial settlers in northern Sahul (New Guinea) followed by westward migrations <28 kya.ConclusionsThe temporal proximity and possible coincidence of these latter dispersals, which encompassed autochthonous haplogroups, with the postulated “later” events of (South) East Asian origin pinpoints a highly dynamic migratory phase.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-014-1201-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Distinct, partly competing, “waves” have been proposed to explain human migration in(to) today’s Island Southeast Asia and Australia based on genetic evidence
Ample mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation of the East Timor population The diverse haplogroup spectrum of East Timor revealed in this first representative mtDNA study illustrates its position at the crossroads of several migrations between Island (or Maritime) Southeast Asia (ISEA), Melanesia and Australia – and likely the area’s rapid change from a large continental landmass to an archipelago [4]
11.1% of the samples could be assigned to a terminal “twig” of the mtDNA Phylotree ([49], build 16) (10.8% based on control region (CR))
Summary
Partly competing, “waves” have been proposed to explain human migration in(to) today’s Island Southeast Asia and Australia based on genetic (and other) evidence. The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor) is located in the Lesser Sunda Islands (Nusa Tenggara) of Island (or Maritime) Southeast Asia (ISEA), between Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) and Australia, the Indian and the Pacific Ocean. It extends over the eastern part of Timor, the adjacent islands Ataúro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave within western Timor (Indonesia) (Figure 1). The area of eastern Indonesia (including East Timor) has been described as a “melting pot” and a migratory “highway” based on genetic data [3,4,5]. Initial DNA studies have provided insights into East Timor’s complex composition [3,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
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