The Utsat people do not belong to one of the recognized ethnic groups in Hainan, China. Some historical literature and linguistic classification confirm a close cultural relationship between the Utsat and Cham people; however, the genetic relationship between these two populations is not known. In the present study, we typed paternal Y chromosome and maternal mitochondrial （mt） DNA markers in 102 Utsat people to gain a better understanding of the genetic history of this population. High frequencies of the Y chromosome haplogroup O 1a＊-M119 and mtDNA lineages D4, F2a, Fib, Fla1, B5a, M8a, M＊, D5, and B4a exhibit a pattern similar to that seen in neighboring indigenous populations. Cluster analyses （principal component analyses and networks） of the Utsat, Cham, and other ethnic groups in East Asia indicate that the Utsat are much closer to the Hainan indigenous ethnic groups than to the Cham and other mainland southeast Asian populations. These findings suggest that the origins of the Utsat likely involved massive assimilation of indigenous ethnic groups. During the assimilation process, the language of Utsat has been structurally changed to a tonal language; however, their Islamic beliefs may have helped to keep their culture and self-identification.
Xinjiang,the most northwest provincial administrative area of China,was the area where the oriental people met the occidental.The populations in Xinjiang exhibit very high genetic diversity.Previous study revealed that the eastern Xinjiang populations of the Bronze Age were mixed by the Eastern and the Western Eurasians.However,few studies have been performed to reveal when the population admixture started and how far to the west it reached.In this paper,we studied 148 craniofacial traits of 18 skulls from the Bronze Age Liushui graveyard in Khotan(Keriya County) in the southwest of Xinjiang.Seventeen craniometrical parameters of the Khotan samples were then compared with those of other ancient samples from around Xinjiang using dendrogram cluster analysis,principal components analysis,and multidimensional scaling.The results indicated that population sample of Liushui graveyard was mixed by the Western and Eastern Eurasians with about 79% contribution from the east.Therefore,we demonstrated that population admixture between east and west Eurasia can be traced back to as early as 1000 BC in southwest Xinjiang.
TAN JingZeLI LiMingZHANG JianBoFU WenQing, GUAN HaiJuan2, AO Xue2,WANG LingE1, WU XinHua3, HAN KangXin3, JIN Li1'2 & LI Hui1'2.FU WenQingGUAN HaiJuanAO XueWANG LingEWU XinHuaHAN KangXinJIN Li
