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The Ami and Yami aborigines of Taiwan and their genetic relationship to East Asian and Pacific populations

European Journal of Human Genetics volume 29, pages 1092–1102 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

This article reports on the genetic characteristics of the Ami and Yami, two aboriginal populations of Taiwan. Y-SNP and mtDNA markers as well as autosomal SNPs were utilized to investigate the phylogenetic relationships to groups from MSEA (mainland Southeast Asia), ISEA (island Southeast Asia), and Oceania. Both the Ami and Yami have limited genetic diversity, with the Yami having even less diversity than the Ami. The partitioning of populations within the PCA plots based on autosomal SNPs, the profile constitution observed in the structure analyses demonstrating similar composition among specific populations, the average IBD (identical by descent) tract length gradients, the average total length of genome share among the populations, and the outgroup f3 results all indicate genetic affinities among populations that trace a geographical arc from Taiwan south into the Philippine Archipelago, Borneo, Indonesia, and Melanesia. Conversely, a more distant kinship between the Ami/Yami and MSEA based on all the markers examined, the total mtDNA sequences as well as the admixture f3 and f4 analyses argue against strong genetic contribution from MSEA to the Austronesian dispersal. The sharing of long IBD tracts, total genome length, and the large number of segments in common between the Ami/Yami and the Society Archipelago populations East Polynesia standout considering they are located about 10,700 km apart.

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Fig. 1: Structure analysis.
Fig. 2: Contour analyses.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Professor Hsue-yin Hsu, Department of Life Science, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan, who assisted us in procuring the samples for this study. We gratefully acknowledge the participation of the people of the Ami and Yami communities of Taiwan in this study. This work was supported by the Estonian Research Council grant PUT (PRG243) to MM and HP; Institutional Research Funding IUT (IUT 24-1) of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research to EM, MR, and ET; European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (Project No. 2014-2020.4.01.16-0030) to MM; European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (Project No. 2014-2020.4.01.16-0125) to MM and MR; European Union through Horizon 2020 grant no. 810645 to MM; European Regional Development Fund project: Centre of Excellence for Genomics and Translational Medicine Project No. 2014–2020.4.01.15-0012 and Estonian Institutional Research grant IUT 24-1 to KT.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Estonian Biocentre, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Kai Tätte, Ene Metspalu, Helen Post, Maere Reidla, Erika Tamm & Mait Metspalu

  2. BIOMICs Research Group, Lascaray Research Center, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

    Leire Palencia-Madrid & Marian M. de Pancorbo

  3. Area de Antropología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Javier Rodríguez Luis

  4. Department of Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Anneliis Rea

  5. Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, USA

    Everett J. Moding

  6. Department of Molecular Biology, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO, USA

    Ralph Garcia-Bertrand & Rene J. Herrera

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  1. Kai Tätte
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Contributions

RJH conceived and directed the project. The following authors contributed to field work: EJM, RG-B, and RJH. Experiments were performed by HP, LP-M, MR, AR, ET, EJM, and RJH. Data analyses were performed by KT, EM, HP, LP-M, JR-L, MM-D-P, and RJH. Manuscript was written and edited by RJH, RG-B, LP-M, HP, EM, MM, and KT. Figures were prepared by RJH, JR-L, KT, EM, HP, and LP-M. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rene J. Herrera.

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Tätte, K., Metspalu, E., Post, H. et al. The Ami and Yami aborigines of Taiwan and their genetic relationship to East Asian and Pacific populations. Eur J Hum Genet 29, 1092–1102 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-021-00837-6

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