Abstract
BackgroundMyanmar is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia with a population of 55 million people subdivided into more than 100 ethnic groups. Ruled by changing kingdoms and dynasties and lying on the trade route between India and China, Myanmar was influenced by numerous cultures. Since its independence from British occupation, tensions between the ruling Bamar and ethnic minorities increased.ResultsOur aim was to search for genetic footprints of Myanmar’s geographic, historic and sociocultural characteristics and to contribute to the picture of human colonization by describing and dating of new mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups. Therefore, we sequenced the mtDNA control region of 327 unrelated donors and the complete mitochondrial genome of 44 selected individuals according to highest quality standards.ConclusionPhylogenetic analyses of the entire mtDNA genomes uncovered eight new haplogroups and three unclassified basal M-lineages. The multi-ethnic population and the complex history of Myanmar were reflected in its mtDNA heterogeneity. Population genetic analyses of Burmese control region sequences combined with population data from neighboring countries revealed that the Myanmar haplogroup distribution showed a typical Southeast Asian pattern, but also Northeast Asian and Indian influences. The population structure of the extraordinarily diverse Bamar differed from that of the Karen people who displayed signs of genetic isolation. Migration analyses indicated a considerable genetic exchange with an overall positive migration balance from Myanmar to neighboring countries. Age estimates of the newly described haplogroups point to the existence of evolutionary windows where climatic and cultural changes gave rise to mitochondrial haplogroup diversification in Asia.
Highlights
Myanmar is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia with a population of 55 million people subdivided into more than 100 ethnic groups
The Myanmar sample, consisting of 327 mitochondrial control region sequences and 44 complete mitochondrial genomes, which constitute a subset of the 327 control region samples, exhibited pronounced mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diversity displaying 113 distinct CR lineages, including eight in this study newly defined haplogroups and three different not classified basal M branches (Additional file 1: Table S1)
Such great variety of M-lineages as we found in Myanmar has only been described before in India [33]
Summary
Myanmar is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia with a population of 55 million people subdivided into more than 100 ethnic groups. Full list of author information is available at the end of the article representing the most important ethnic groups of Myanmar and genotyped the entire mitochondrial control region (16024–16569; 1–576) of all samples and the entire mitochondrial genome of a subset of 44 selected samples. This dataset from Myanmar is of great historic interest, because SEA is a key region of human population history with a first entry of anatomically modern humans of African descent about 60,000 years ago [10,11], who continued their way through the coastal route to Island SEA and Australia [8]. Ruled by changing kingdoms and dynasties [16], occupied by the British Empire (1824–1948) and lying on the trade route between India and China [17], Myanmar was influenced by a variety of cultures
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
