Southern China was likely the genetic reservoir of modern humans after theyentered East Asia, according to researchers at Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The paper “Large-scale mtDNA screening reveals a surprising matrilineal complexity in East Asia and its implications to the peopling of the region” by KONG Qingpeng et al, suggests that the unclassified mtDNAs identified a number of novellineages, including five novel basal haplogroups that directlyemanate from the Eurasian founder nodes (M and N), while no matrilinealcontribution from the archaic hominid was observed. The paper further shows that these newly identified basal lineagesmay represent the genetic relics of modern humans initiallypeopling East Asia, instead of being the results of gene flowfrom the neighboring regions. 

The observation that most of thenewly recognized mtDNA lineages have already differentiatedand show the highest genetic diversity in southern China further supported the Southern-Route peoplinghypothesis of East Asians. “Since mostof the basal lineages were distributed in southern China, this regionwas likely the genetic reservoir of modern humans after theyentered East Asia,” said KONG.

Their findings are published online in the journal Mol Biol Evol.（http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/msq219）

doi:10.1093/molbev/msq219