Y-chromosomal insights into the genetic impact of the caste system in India |
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Authors: | Tatiana Zerjal Arpita Pandya Kumarasamy Thangaraj Edmund Y. S. Ling Jennifer Kearley Stefania Bertoneri Silvia Paracchini Lalji Singh Chris Tyler-Smith |
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Affiliation: | (1) The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambs, CB10 1SA, UK;(2) Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK;(3) Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India;(4) Present address: Station de Génétique Végétale, Ferme du Moulon, Gif-sur-Yvette, France;(5) Present address: Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford, UK;(6) Present address: Leukocyte Biology Section, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, UK;(7) Present address: Anthropology Unit, Department of Ethnology, Ecology and Evolution, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy |
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Abstract: | The caste system has persisted in Indian Hindu society for around 3,500 years. Like the Y chromosome, caste is defined at birth, and males cannot change their caste. In order to investigate the genetic consequences of this system, we have analysed male-lineage variation in a sample of 227 Indian men of known caste, 141 from the Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh and 86 from the rest of India. We typed 131 Y-chromosomal binary markers and 16 microsatellites. We find striking evidence for male substructure: in particular, Brahmins and Kshatriyas (but not other castes) from Jaunpur each show low diversity and the predominance of a single distinct cluster of haplotypes. These findings confirm the genetic isolation and drift within the Jaunpur upper castes, which are likely to result from founder effects and social factors. In the other castes, there may be either larger effective population sizes, or less strict isolation, or both. Electronic supplementary material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at and is accessible for authorized users. Tatiana Zerjal and Arpita Pandya contributed equally to this work. |
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Keywords: | Y chromosome Haplotype Human population substructure Indian caste system |
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