Work

Maternal genetic architecture of Guizhou's Hmong-Mien populations via whole mitogenome

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The Hmong-Mien (HM) language family, majorly distributed across southern China and Southeast Asia, has remained underexplored in population genetics, particularly concerning whole mitogenome studies. In this study, we sequenced the whole mitogenomes of 261 individuals from Guizhou Hmong-Mien-speaking populations (HM-G), comprising Miao, Yao, and She individuals. The haplogroup distribution was dominated by southern East Asian haplogroups (B, M7, and F). The neutrality test revealed significantly negative values, and mismatch distribution analyses showed a pronounced unimodal distribution, indicating high genetic diversity and recent population expansion in populations. For a comprehensive understanding of the matrilineal genetic background of the HM-speaking population, we merged whole mitogenome data from 83 populations worldwide. Our findings showed that the HM-G exhibited relatively close genetic distances to HM- and Tai-Kadai-speaking populations from East and Southeast Asia. These results provide crucial insights into the genetic structure and evolutionary history of HM-G. • The B4a5 might be the maternal founding lineage of the Hmongic language. • The study enriched the genetic data of the Guizhou She population. • Genetic exchange exists among Hmong-Mien-speaking populations and other populations. • The sdudied populations provide detailed information about the degree of variation in mtDNA and the distribution of haplogroups. • The Guizhou Hmong-Mien-speaking populations might be linked to the Neolithic Period.

Source: Genomics

DOI: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2025.111041