Unique characteristics of the Ainu population in Northern Japan

@article{Jinam2015UniqueCO,
  title={Unique characteristics of the Ainu population in Northern Japan},
  author={Timothy A. Jinam and Hideaki Kanzawa-Kiriyama and Ituro Inoue and Katsushi Tokunaga and Keiichi Omoto and Naruya Saitou},
  journal={Journal of Human Genetics},
  year={2015},
  volume={60},
  pages={565-571}
}
Various genetic data (classic markers, mitochondrial DNAs, Y chromosomes and genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)) have confirmed the coexistence of three major human populations on the Japanese Archipelago: Ainu in Hokkaido, Ryukyuans in the Southern Islands and Mainland Japanese. We compared genome-wide SNP data of the Ainu, Ryukyuans and Mainland Japanese, and found the following results: (1) the Ainu are genetically different from Mainland Japanese living in Tohoku, the… 
View on Nature
nature.com
25 Citations
Background Citations
9
Methods Citations
1
Results Citations
1

25 Citations

Comprehensive analysis of Japanese archipelago population history by detecting ancestry-marker polymorphisms without using ancient DNA data

TLDR
The analysis of Jomon-derived SNPs in 10,842 modern Japanese individuals recruited from all the 47 prefectures of Japan showed that the genetic differences among the prefecture were mainly caused by differences in the admixture proportion of the Jomon people and the population size of immigrants varied between regions in mainland Japan.

Ethnic derivation of the Ainu inferred from ancient mitochondrial DNA data

TLDR
The results suggest that the Ainu were formed from the Hokkaido Jomon people, but subsequently underwent considerable admixture with adjacent populations, and that the Siberian influence on this population is far greater than previously recognized.

Prefecture-level population structure of the Japanese based on SNP genotypes of 11,069 individuals.

TLDR
Genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism data of 11,069 Japanese individuals recruited from all 47 prefectures of Japan revealed that mainland Japanese were not genetically homogeneous, and the genetic structure could be explained mainly by the degree of Jomon ancestry and the geographical location.

The fine-scale genetic structure and evolution of the Japanese population

TLDR
In Asians, the possibility that positive selection accentuated genetic differentiation among distant populations but attenuated genetic differentiate among close populations is found, which is significant for studies of human evolution and medical genetics.

Deep History of East Asian Populations Revealed Through Genetic Analysis of the Ainu

TLDR
It is found that the Ainu represent a deep branch of East Asian diversity more basal than all present-day East Asian farmers, and has a closer genetic relationship with northeast Siberians than with central Siberians, suggesting ancient connections among populations around the Sea of Okhotsk.

Modern human DNA analyses with special reference to the inner dual-structure model of Yaponesian

TLDR
These three datasets provide support for the three-wave, ‘inner dual-structure’ model by examining three datasets of modern human DNA and finding that the two- and three-layer migration models are both compatible with these SNP data.

Analysis of whole Y-chromosome sequences reveals the Japanese population history in the Jomon period

TLDR
The colder climate in the Late to Final Jomon period may have resulted in critical shortages of food for the Jomon people, who were hunter-gatherers, and the rice farming introduced by Yayoi immigrants may have helped the population size of theJomon people to recover.

Human genetic diversity in the Japanese Archipelago: dual structure and beyond.

TLDR
The dual-structure model, which is based on craniofacial measurements, proposes that admixture between the Jomon and Yayoi people resulted in current-day Japanese and unveiled the uniqueness of the indigenous Ainu and Ryukyuan people while further demonstrating the genetic substructure within the Mainland Japanese.

Detection of ancestry-derived variants of modern Japanese revealed the formation process of regional gradations of the current Japanese archipelago population

TLDR
A formation model of modern Japanese population is proposed; regional variations in admixture proportions of the Jomon people and continental East Asians formed genotypic and phenotypic gradations of current Japanese archipelago populations.

Evolutionary History of the Risk of SNPs for Diffuse-Type Gastric Cancer in the Japanese Population

TLDR
To understand the evolutionary history of the alleles in PSCA, whether the C non-risk allele at rs2294008 is under positive selection, and why the mainland Japanese population has a higher T allele frequency than other populations, it is found that haplotypes harboring the C allele are composed of two subhaplotypes.

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 38 REFERENCES

The history of human populations in the Japanese Archipelago inferred from genome-wide SNP data with a special reference to the Ainu and the Ryukyuan populations

TLDR
Close to one million single-nucleotide polymorphisms for the Ainu and the Ryukyuan are determined, and the dual structure model on the Japanese Archipelago populations clearly support, though the origins of the Jomon and the Yayoi people still remain to be solved.

Analysis of HLA genes and haplotypes in Ainu (from Hokkaido, northern Japan) supports the premise that they descent from Upper Paleolithic populations of East Asia.

The Ainu people are assumed to be the descendants of pre-agricultural native populations of northern Japan, while the majority of population of present-day Japan (Hondo-Japanese) is considered to…

Genome-wide SNP analysis reveals population structure and demographic history of the ryukyu islanders in the southern part of the Japanese archipelago.

TLDR
The findings suggest that the Pleistocene inhabitants, whose bones have been found on the southern Ryukyu Islands, did not make a major genetic contribution, if any, to the present-day inhabitants of the southern Okinawa Islands.

Genetic origins of the Japanese: a partial support for the dual structure hypothesis.

TLDR
A modified version of the dual structure model is proposed which may explain the genetic, morphological, and archaeological evidence concerning the formation of modern Japanese populations.

Detection of Ancestry Informative HLA Alleles Confirms the Admixed Origins of Japanese Population

TLDR
A significant level of population substructure in Japanese is found; particularly the differentiation between Okinawa Island and mainland Japanese, which suggests that early Japanese who existed prior to the migration wave from the Korean Peninsula shared ancestry with northern Asian who moved to the New World via the Bering Strait land bridge.

Mitochondrial genome variation in eastern Asia and the peopling of Japan.

TLDR
Population-based comparisons confirmed that present-day Japanese have their closest genetic affinity to northern Asian populations, especially to Koreans, which finding is congruent with the proposed Continental gene flow to Japan after the Yayoi period.

Japanese population structure, based on SNP genotypes from 7003 individuals compared to other ethnic groups: effects on population-based association studies.

Paleolithic Contingent in Modern Japanese: Estimation and Inference using Genome-wide Data

TLDR
This report aimed to infer the origin of Jomon and to estimate its contribution to Japanese by fitting an admixture model with missing data from Jomon to genome-wide data from 94 worldwide populations, and showed the Paleolithic contingent in Japanese had a Northeast Asia origin.

Singapore Genome Variation Project: a haplotype map of three Southeast Asian populations.

TLDR
This resource introduces this resource and describes the analysis of human genomic variation upon agglomerating data from the HapMap and the Human Genome Diversity Project, providing useful insights into the population structure of the three major population groups in Asia.

Genetic evidence for recent population mixture in India.