Gan Rui-Jing, Pan Shang-Ling, Mustavich Laura F, Qin Zhen-Dong, Cai Xiao-Yun, Qian Ji, Liu Cheng-Wu, Peng Jun-Hua, Li Shi-Lin, Xu Jie-Shun, Jin Li, Li Hui
Department of Pathophysiology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, China.
MOE Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.
J Hum Genet. 2008;53(4):303-313. doi: 10.1007/s10038-008-0250-x. Epub 2008 Feb 13.
The Han Chinese is the largest single ethnic group in the world, consisting of ten Chinese branches. With the exception of the Pinghua branch, the genetic structure of this group has been studied extensively, and Y chromosome and mitochondrial (mt)DNA data have demonstrated a coherent genetic structure of all Han Chinese. It is therefore believed that the Pinghua branch, being members of an old branch of the Han Chinese, despite being scattered in and around Guangxi Province where members of the Daic and Hmong-Mien are more prevalent than Han Chinese, is no exception. We have studied 470 individual samples (including 195 males) from Pinghua populations and other ethnic groups (Zhuang, Kam, Mulam, Laka, and Mien) from six areas (Hezhou, Fuchuan, Luocheng, Jinxiu, Sanjiang, and Wuxuan) in the north of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. Both mtDNA and the Y chromosomes were typed in these samples. High frequencies of the Y chromosome haplogroups O2a* and O*, which always present at a high frequency among the populations of the southern minorities, were found in Pinghua populations. Only Pinghua populations in Luocheng and Jinxiu maintain the Han frequent haplogroup O3a5a. mtDNA lineages B4a, B5a, M*, F1a, M7b1, and N* were found in Pinghua populations, exhibiting a pattern similar to the neighboring indigenous populations, especially the Daic populations. Cluster analyses (dendrograms, principal component analyses, and networks) of Pinghua populations, the other Han branches, and other ethnic groups in East Asia indicated that Pinghua populations are much closer to the southern minorities than to the other Han branches. Admixture analyses confirmed this result. In conclusion, we argue that Pinghua populations did not descend from Han Chinese, but from southern minorities. The ancestral populations of Pinghua people were assimilated by the Han Chinese in terms of language, culture, and self-identification and, consequently, the Pinghua people became an exceptional branch of Han Chinese's coherent genetic structure.
汉族是世界上最大的单一民族群体，由十个汉语分支组成。除平话分支外，该群体的遗传结构已得到广泛研究，Y染色体和线粒体（mt）DNA数据显示所有汉族具有一致的遗传结构。因此，人们认为平话分支作为汉族的一个古老分支成员，尽管散居在广西省及其周边地区，那里傣族人、苗瑶族人比汉族人更为普遍，但也不例外。我们研究了来自中国广西壮族自治区北部六个地区（贺州、富川、罗城、金秀、三江和武宣）的平话人群以及其他民族（壮族、侗族、仫佬族、拉珈族和瑶族）的470个个体样本（包括195名男性）。对这些样本进行了mtDNA和Y染色体分型。在平话人群中发现了Y染色体单倍群O2a和O的高频率，这两个单倍群在南方少数民族群体中总是呈现高频率。只有罗城和金秀的平话人群保留了汉族常见的单倍群O3a5a。在平话人群中发现了mtDNA谱系B4a、B5a、M*、F1a、M7b1和N*，呈现出与邻近土著群体，特别是傣族群体相似的模式。对平话人群、其他汉族分支以及东亚其他民族的聚类分析（树状图、主成分分析和网络分析）表明，平话人群与南方少数民族的关系比与其他汉族分支更为密切。混合分析证实了这一结果。总之，我们认为平话人群并非源自汉族，而是源自南方少数民族。平话人的祖先群体在语言、文化和自我认同方面被汉族同化，因此，平话人成为了汉族一致遗传结构中的一个特殊分支。
