Xu Shuhua’s team analyzes the genetic origin and phenotypic convergence evolution mechanism of Asian tropical natives

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2021 Nian 12 Yue 23 days, "Molecular Biology and Evolution" ( Molecular Biology and Evolution) Published online research results " Genetic connections and convergent evolution of tropical indigenous peoples in Asia" by

Figure 1 The distribution of tropical indigenous people involved in the study

Photo source website: https:// , https:// and https:// ; some photos are provided by the team of Professor Boon-Peng Hoh from UCSI University in Malaysia .

If the evolution of modern humans is a brilliant history book, then Southeast Asia must be an indispensable and important chapter in it

Question 1: What is the journey of modern people "out of Africa"? How did the migration from Africa to Asia happen?

Some scholars have speculated that the indigenous peoples distributed in the Andaman Islands, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippine Islands, and the island of New Guinea may represent a group of modern people who migrated from Africa to Asia first, but there is still a lack of sufficient evidence to support them

Figure 2 The global distribution of early Asian ancestors and the inferred early migration routes of Asian populations

Question 2: How do modern people's environmental adaptability phenotypes arise? The "convergent phenotypes" of some tropical indigenous peoples in Africa and Asia, such as short stature, dark skin, curly hair, wide nose, etc.

Based on the 1057 pigment-related genes reported in the literature and databases and the 103 sites with clear functional effects, the study analyzed their genetic variation patterns in the global population, and summarized several possible evolution models ( see figure).

Figure 3 Genetic evolution model of dark skin-related gene variation

This research work was jointly completed by the team of Professor Xu Shuhua from Fudan University and the team of Professor Boon-Peng Hoh from USCI University in Malaysia .

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Newton Fund of the Royal Society, the National Key Research and Development Program, the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia, and the Ministry of Science and Technology Innovation.

Link to the paper: https://academic.