Genetic history of East Asians

[3][4][1] Seguin-Orlando et al. (2014) stated that East Asians diverged from West Eurasians, which occurred at least 36,200 years ago, during the Upper Paleolithic.

Phylogenetic data suggests that an early Initial Upper Paleolithic wave (>45kya) "ascribed to a population movement with uniform genetic features and material culture" (Ancient East Eurasians) used a Southern dispersal route through South Asia, where they subsequently diverged rapidly, and gave rise to Australasians (Oceanians), the Ancient Ancestral South Indians (AASI), as well as Andamanese and East/Southeast Asians,[7] although Papuans may have also received some geneflow from an earlier group (xOoA),[8] around 2%,[9] next to additional archaic admixture in the Sahul region.The southern route model for East Asians has been corroborated in multiple recent studies, showing that most of the ancestry of Eastern Asians arrived from the southern route in to Southeast Asia at a very early period, starting perhaps as early as 70,000 years ago, and dispersed northward across Eastern Asia.

[21][7] Contemporary East Asians (notably Sino-Tibetan speakers) mostly have Yellow River ancestry, which is associated with millet and rice cultivation.

This was later followed by another expansion from the south in relatively recent times, associated with Amur River ancestry involving Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic speakers.

[37] This is reflected by the average genetic makeup of Xiongnu samples, having approximately 58% East Eurasian ancestry, represented by a Bronze Age population from Khövsgöl, Mongolia, which may be associated with the Turkic linguistic heritage.

The rest of the Xiongnu's ancestry (~40%) was related to West Eurasians, represented by the Gonur Depe BMAC population of Central Asia, and the Sintashta culture of the Western steppe.

[39][37] High status Xiongnu individuals tended to have less genetic diversity, and their ancestry was essentially derived from the Eastern Eurasian Ulaanzuukh/Slab Grave culture.

[47] A full genomic analysis performed on multiple Xianbei remains found the population to have derived primarily from the Ancient Northeast Asian gene pool.

[48] A genetic study published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in August 2018 noted that the paternal haplogroup C2b1a1b has been detected among the Xianbei and the Rouran, and was probably an important lineage among the Donghu people.

[53][54] The Hoabinhians represent a technologically advanced society of hunter-gatherers, primarily living in Mainland Southeast Asia, but also adjacent regions of Southern China.

[57] A study on the Manchu population of Liaoning reported that they have a close genetic relationship and significant admixture signals from Northern Han Chinese.

[61] Haplogroup C3b2b1*-M401(xF5483)[62][63][64] has been identified as a possible marker of the Aisin Gioro and is found in ten different ethnic minorities in Northern China, but is less prevalent from Han Chinese.

[80] Evidence for both Northern and Southern mtDNA and Y-DNA haplogroups has been observed in the Japanese, with the North-Eastern DNA taking up majority of the genetic makeup,[72] especially among the Mainland group.

[78] In addition to the Northeastern ancestry, the Japanese demographics (alongside the Koreans), are the only ethnicities to have restricted presence of the Jōmon-like M7a DNA [ja] in East Asia.

[80] It is believed that the Jōmon-like ancestry was prominent during Neolithic period of Korea[93] with percentage as high as 34% (±7%),[91] but diminished over time due to incoming populations from the north.

[82][94] This is supported by archaeological, historical and linguistic evidence, which suggests that the direct ancestors of Koreans were proto-Koreans who inhabited the northeastern region of China (situated near Liao River) and the northern part of the Korean peninsula during the Neolithic (8,000–1,000 BC) and Bronze (1,500–400 BC) Ages,[95] who later mixed with the Jōmon-like natives in the southern part of the peninsula before the Three Kingdoms period of Korea.

[20] The genetic makeup of the modern Han Chinese is not purely uniform in terms of physical appearance and biological structure due to the vast geographical expanse of China and the migratory percolations that have occurred throughout it over the last few millennia.

Comparisons between the Y chromosome single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of modern Northern Han Chinese and 3000 year old Hengbei ancient samples from China's Central Plains show that they are extremely similar to each other.

These findings demonstrate that the core fundamental structural basis that shaped the genetic makeup of the present-day Northern Han Chinese was already formed more than three thousand years ago.

[118] Studies of DNA remnants from the Central Plains area of China 3000 years ago show close affinity between that population and those of Northern Han today in both the Y-DNA and mtDNA.

This haplogroup is implied to be widespread in the Eurasian steppe and north Asia since it is found among Cimmerians in Moldova and Bronze Age natives of Khövsgöl.

[153] Tibetan females belong mainly to the Northeast Asian maternal haplogroups M9a1a, M9a1b, D4g2, D4i and G2ac, showing continuity with ancient middle and upper Yellow River populations.

Genetic data found that almost all modern Turkic-speaking peoples retained at least some shared ancestry associated with "Southern Siberian and Mongolian" (SSM) populations, supporting this region as the "Inner Asian Homeland (IAH) of the pioneer carriers of Turkic languages" which subsequently expanded into Central Asia.

"[172] Multiple studies suggests that all Native Americans ultimately descended from a single founding population that initially diverged from" Ancestral Beringians" which shared a common origin with Paleo-Siberians from the merger of Ancient North Eurasians and a Basal-East Asian source population in Mainland Southeast Asia around 36,000 years ago, at the same time at which the proper Jōmon people split from Basal-East Asians, either together or during a separate expansion wave.

The basal Northern and Southern Native American branches, to which all other Indigenous peoples belong, diverged around 16,000 years ago, although earlier dates were also proposed.

Genetic data on samples with alleged "Paleo-Indian" morphology turned out to be closely related to contemporary Native Americans, disproving a hypothetical earlier migration into the Americas.

[179][180] According to a genetic research (2015) including linguistic analyses, suggests an East Asian origin for proto-Austroasiatic groups, which first migrated to Southeast Asia and later into India.

[183][181][184][185][186][187] According to Van Driem (2007), "...the mitochondrial picture indicates that the Munda maternal lineage derives from the earliest human settlers on the Subcontinent, whilst the predominant Y chromosome haplogroup argues for a Southeast Asian paternal homeland for Austroasiatic language communities in India.

"[184]: 7 According to Chaubey et al. (2011), "Austroasiatic speakers in India today are derived from dispersal from Southeast Asia, followed by extensive sex-specific admixture with local Indian populations.

"[183] According to Zhang et al. (2015), Austroasiatic (male) migrations from southeast Asia into India took place after the lates Glacial maximum, circa 4,000 years ago.

Proposed migration routes (Wang 2013) of dominant East Asian paternal haplogroups (C, D, N, and O), during the peopling of East Asia [ 2 ]
Proposed migration routes of maternal haplogroups during the peopling of Eurasia [ 10 ]
A population genomic PCA graph, showing the substructure of Eastern Asian populations [ 20 ]
Genetic structure of present-day and ancient Eurasians [ 58 ]
Phylogenetic tree of Ainu, Ryukyuan, Mainland Japanese, and other Asian ethnic groups. The Ainu and the Ryukyuan were clustered with 100% bootstrap probability, followed by the Mainland Japanese. The three populations in the Japanese archipelago clustered with the Korean with 100% bootstrap probability [ 70 ] [ 71 ]
Regional reference panel, PCA, and Admixture analysis
Estimated ancestry components among modern Eurasian populations. The colored components represent the distinctive genetic markers characteristic of people with red representing East Asian ancestry, Yellow for Siberian ancestry, green for South Asian ancestry, and blue for West Eurasian ancestry. [ 112 ]
A PCA graph illustrates the genetic differences among Han Chinese groups [ 137 ]
Population structure of Turkic-speaking populations in the context of their geographic neighbors across Eurasia. Turkic-speaking populations are shown in red. The upper barplot shows only Turkic-speaking populations.
Genetic, archeologic and linguistic evidence links the early Turkic peoples with Northeast Asian millet-agriculturalists, which later adopted a nomadic lifestyle and expanded from eastern Mongolia westwards.
PCA of various populations in the context of Eurasia and the Americas
Estimated ancestry components among selected modern populations per Changmai et al. (2022). The yellow component represents East Asian-like ancestry. [ 193 ]
PCA plot of genetic variation of worldwide populations. Australasians (green) cluster relative close to other East Eurasians, such as East/Southeast Asians.