Abstract
BackgroundThe population structure of the Indian subcontinent is a tapestry of extraordinary diversity characterized by the amalgamation of autochthonous and immigrant ancestries and rigid enforcement of sociocultural stratification. Here we investigated the genetic origin and population history of the Kumhars, a group of people who inhabit large parts of northern India. We compared 27 previously published Kumhar SNP genotype data sampled from Uttar Pradesh in north India to various modern day and ancient populations.ResultsVarious approaches such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Admixture, TreeMix concurred that Kumhars have high ASI ancestry, minimal Steppe component and high genomic proximity to the Kurchas, a small and relatively little-known population found ~ 2500 km away in Kerala, south India. Given the same, biogeographical mapping using Geographic Population Structure (GPS) assigned most Kumhar samples in areas neighboring to those where Kurchas are found in south India.ConclusionsWe hypothesize that the significant genomic similarity between two apparently distinct modern-day Indian populations that inhabit well separated geographical areas with no known overlapping history or links, likely alludes to their common origin during or post the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization (estimated by ALDER). Thereafter, while they dispersed towards opposite ends of the Indian subcontinent, their genomic integrity and likeness remained preserved due to endogamous social practices. Our findings illuminate the genomic history of two Indian populations, allowing a glimpse into one or few of numerous of human migrations that likely occurred across the Indian subcontinent and contributed to shape its varied and vibrant evolutionary past.
Highlights
The population structure of the Indian subcontinent is a tapestry of extraordinary diversity characterized by the amalgamation of autochthonous and immigrant ancestries and rigid enforcement of sociocultural stratification
The southward dispersal of Steppe_MLBA populations occurred around this time into South Asia [20,21,22]; it is envisioned that the Indus_Periphery related groups admixed with the Steppe_MLBA immigrants to form the Ancestral North Indian (ANI), while additional Indus_Periphery people migrated further south and eastward within peninsular India to mingle with Ancient Ancestral South Indian (AASI) and formed the Ancestral South Indian (ASI) [17]
Clustering of Kumhars in the context of other south Asian populations Principal component analysis (PCA) of South Asian samples exhibited previously described [14, 26] ANI – ASI -AAA cline along the horizontal principal component (PC1) with Ashkenazi Jews, Kalash and other Pakistani populations, and Shia Iranians from Hyderabad clustering at one extreme of the cline, and Juang and other AAA populations congregating at the other extreme (Fig. 1 and Additional file 1 Fig. S2)
Summary
The population structure of the Indian subcontinent is a tapestry of extraordinary diversity characterized by the amalgamation of autochthonous and immigrant ancestries and rigid enforcement of sociocultural stratification. The ANI and ASI gene pools arose subsequently around ~ the 2nd millennium BCE, concurrent with the decline of the Indus Valley civilization (IVC) [19] that propelled a massive upheaval in human settlements across northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. The southward dispersal of Steppe_MLBA (later Middle to late Bronze Age Steppe) populations occurred around this time into South Asia [20,21,22]; it is envisioned that the Indus_Periphery related groups admixed with the Steppe_MLBA immigrants to form the ANI, while additional Indus_ Periphery people migrated further south and eastward within peninsular India to mingle with AASI and formed the ASI [17]. Interrogation of population structure, relatedness and ancestry of Indian populations provide valuable insight to reconstruct their evolutionary past but may have important implications in medical genetics and understanding relevant disease biology
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