Tag: Asia

Asian ancestry of the Roma people in Europe

New article, Tau haplotypes support the Asian ancestry of the Roma population settled in the Basque Country, by Alfonso-Sánchez et al., Nature (2017).

Abstract:

We examined tau haplotype frequencies in two different ethnical groups from the Basque Country (BC): Roma people and residents of European ancestry (general population). In addition, we analyzed the spatial distribution of tau haplotypes in Eurasian populations to explore the genetic affinities of the Romani groups living in Europe in a broader scope. The 17q21.31 genomic region was characterized through the genotyping of two diagnostic single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs (rs10514879 and rs199451), which allow the

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Review article on the origin of modern humans: the multiple-dispersal model and Late Pleistocene Asia

homo-sapiens-dispersal

Review article On the origin of modern humans: Asian perspectives, by Christopher J. Bae, Katerina Douka, and Michael D. Petraglia, Science (2017)

Abstract:

BACKGROUND
The earliest fossils of Homo sapiens are located in Africa and dated to the late Middle Pleistocene. At some point later, modern humans dispersed into Asia and reached the far-away locales of Europe, Australia, and eventually the Americas. Given that Neandertals, Denisovans, mid-Pleistocene Homo, and H. floresiensis were present in Asia before the appearance of modern humans, the timing and nature of the spread of modern humans across Eurasia continue to be subjects of intense

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