Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York, USA.
Laboratory of Evolutionary Anthropology and Health, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York, USA.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 2020 May;172(1):87-98. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24047. Epub 2020 Mar 9.
The island of New Guinea was settled by modern human over 50,000 years ago, and is currently characterized by a complex landscape and contains one-seventh of the world's languages. The Eastern Highlands of New Guinea were also the home to the devastating prion disease called kuru that primarily affected Fore-speaking populations, with some 68% of cases involving adult females. We characterized the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diversity of highlanders from Papua New Guinea (PNG) to: (a) gain insight into the coevolution of genes and languages in situ over mountainous landscapes; and (b) evaluate the recent influence of kuru mortality on the pattern of female gene flow.
We sequenced the mtDNA hypervariable segment 1 of 870 individuals from the Eastern and Southern Highlands of PNG using serums collected in the 1950s to 1960s. These highlanders were selected from villages representing 15 linguistic groups within the Trans-New Guinea phylum. Genetic, linguistic, and geographic distances were calculated separately and correlations among those distance matrices were assessed using the Mantel test.
Geographic, genetic, and linguistic patterns were independently correlated with each other (p < .05). Increased mtDNA diversity in kuru-affected populations and low Fst estimates between kuru-affected linguistic groups were observed.
In general, the genetic structure among the Highland populations was shaped by both geography and language, and language is a good predictor of mtDNA affinity in the PNG Highlands. High kuru female mortality increased female gene flow locally, disrupting coevolutionary pattern among genes, languages, and geography.
新几内亚岛在 5 万多年前被现代人定居，目前其地貌复杂，拥有世界上七分之一的语言。新几内亚的东部高地也是毁灭性朊病毒疾病库鲁病的发源地，主要影响讲福雷语的人群，约 68%的病例涉及成年女性。我们对巴布亚新几内亚（PNG）高地人的线粒体 DNA（mtDNA）多样性进行了表征，目的是：（a）深入了解基因和语言在山区景观中的共同进化；（b）评估库鲁病死亡率对女性基因流动模式的近期影响。
我们使用 20 世纪 50 年代至 60 年代采集的血清，对来自 PNG 东部和南部高地的 870 个人的 mtDNA 高变区 1 进行了测序。这些高地人来自代表跨新几内亚语系内 15 个语言群体的村庄。分别计算了遗传、语言和地理距离，并使用 Mantel 检验评估了这些距离矩阵之间的相关性。
地理、遗传和语言模式相互独立相关（p < 0.05）。在受库鲁病影响的人群中观察到 mtDNA 多样性增加，以及受库鲁病影响的语言群体之间的低 Fst 估计值。
总体而言，高地人群的遗传结构受到地理和语言的共同影响，语言是 PNG 高地 mtDNA 亲和力的良好预测指标。高死亡率的库鲁病女性增加了当地的女性基因流动，破坏了基因、语言和地理之间的协同进化模式。
