Kutanan Wibhu, Kitpipit Thitika, Phetpeng Sukanya, Thanakiatkrai Phuvadol
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand.
Forensic Science Program, Department of Applied Science, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand.
J Hum Genet. 2014 Dec;59(12):675-81. doi: 10.1038/jhg.2014.93. Epub 2014 Oct 23.
Among the people living in the five deep Southern Thai provinces, Thai-Malay Muslims (MUS) constitute the majority, while the remaining are Thai Buddhists (BUD). Cultural, linguistic and religious differences between these two populations have been previously reported. However, their biological relationship has never been investigated. In this study, we aimed to reveal the genetic structure and genetic affinity between MUS and BUD by analyzing 15 autosomal short tandem repeats. Both distance and model-based clustering methods showed significant genetic homogeneity between these two populations, suggesting a common biological ancestry. After Islamization in this region during the fourteenth century AD, gradual albeit nonstatistically significant genetic changes occurred within these two populations. Cultural barriers possibly influenced these genetic changes. MUS have closer admixture to Malaysian-Malay Muslims than BUD countrywide. Admixture proportions also support certain degree of genetic dissimilarity between the two studied populations, as shown by the unequal genetic contribution from Malaysian-Malay Muslims. Cultural transformation and recent minor genetic admixture are the likely processes that shaped the genetic structure of both MUS and BUD.
在泰国最南部五个省份的居民中，泰裔马来穆斯林（MUS）占多数，其余为泰国佛教徒（BUD）。此前已有报道称这两个人群在文化、语言和宗教方面存在差异。然而，他们之间的生物学关系从未被研究过。在本研究中，我们旨在通过分析15个常染色体短串联重复序列来揭示MUS和BUD之间的遗传结构和遗传亲缘关系。距离法和基于模型的聚类方法均显示这两个人群之间存在显著的遗传同质性，表明它们有共同的生物学祖先。公元14世纪该地区伊斯兰化之后，这两个人群内部逐渐发生了虽无统计学意义但明显的遗传变化。文化障碍可能影响了这些遗传变化。在全国范围内，MUS与马来西亚马来穆斯林的混合程度比BUD更高。混合比例也支持两个研究人群之间存在一定程度的遗传差异，如马来西亚马来穆斯林的遗传贡献不均所示。文化转变和近期轻微的基因混合可能是塑造MUS和BUD遗传结构的过程。
