Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Immunology, University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain.
Biomedical Research Center (CINBIO), University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2020 Mar 17;10(1):4901. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-61793-7.
Despite the efforts made to reconstruct the history of modern humans, there are still poorly explored regions that are key for understanding the phylogeography of our species. One of them is the Philippines, which is crucial to unravel the colonization of Southeast Asia and Oceania but where little is known about when and how the first humans arrived. In order to shed light into this settlement, we collected samples from 157 individuals of the Philippines with the four grandparents belonging to the same region and mitochondrial variants older than 20,000 years. Next, we analyzed the hypervariable I mtDNA region by approximate Bayesian computation based on extensive spatially explicit computer simulations to select among several migration routes towards the Philippines and to estimate population genetic parameters of this colonization. We found that the colonization of the Philippines occurred more than 60,000 years ago, with long-distance dispersal and from both north and south migration routes. Our results also suggest an environmental scenario especially optimal for humans, with large carrying capacity and population growth, in comparison to other regions of Asia. In all, our study suggests a rapid expansion of modern humans towards the Philippines that could be associated with the establisment of maritime technologies and favorable environmental conditions.
尽管人们努力重建现代人的历史，但仍有一些研究不足的地区是理解人类物种系统地理学的关键。其中之一是菲律宾，它对解开东南亚和大洋洲的殖民化历史至关重要，但对于第一批人类何时以及如何到达菲律宾却知之甚少。为了阐明这一定居点，我们从菲律宾的 157 个人中收集了样本，其中包括来自同一地区的四位祖父母和年龄超过 2 万年的线粒体变体。接下来，我们通过基于广泛空间显式计算机模拟的近似贝叶斯计算分析了高度可变的 I 区 mtDNA，以选择几种向菲律宾的迁徙路线，并估计这一殖民化的人口遗传参数。我们发现，菲律宾的殖民化发生在 6 万多年前，存在远距离扩散，而且有来自北方和南方的迁徙路线。我们的结果还表明，与亚洲其他地区相比，这里的环境对人类特别有利，具有较大的承载能力和人口增长。总之，我们的研究表明，现代人向菲律宾的快速扩张可能与航海技术的建立和有利的环境条件有关。
