DNA confirms prehistoric coastal trek to Australia By Science Onlines Nicky Phillips Researchers have uncovered DNA evidence linking Indian tribes to Australian Aboriginal people, supporting the theory humans arrived in Australia from Africa via a southern coastal route through India. The research, led by Dr Raghavendra Rao from the Anthropological Survey of India, is published in the current edition of BMC Evolutionary Biology. The evidence is expected to debunk the theory modern humans arrived in Australia via an inland route through central Asia. Dr Rao says while most scientists believe modern humans arrived via the coast of South Asia, there has never been any evidence to confirm a stop-off in India until now. Dr Rao and his colleagues sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of 966 people from traditional tribes in India. They reported several of the Indian people studied had two regions of their mitochondrial DNA that were identical to those found in modern day Australian Aboriginal people. The team compared Indian sequences with those from Aboriginal Australians collected in past studies. Dr Rao and his colleagues used special computer programs to predict that a common ancestor existed, between the Indian population and Aboriginal Australians, up to 50,000 years ago. Skeletal remains, dating back between 40,000 - 60,000 years, from Lake Mungo in New South Wales also support the theory. Dr Rao said the team sequenced mitochondrial DNA because it was the best type of DNA to use for ancestral studies. Mitochondrial DNA is passed on by mothers only and does not change much over time. Evolutionary biologist Jeremy Austin, of the University of Adelaide, says the new data definitely supports the coastal route hypothesis. Dr Austin says before this research was published, genetic markers from Aboriginal Australians were known to be closely related to markers from traditional Indian and South East Asian peoples. But this is the first time people have been able to find these exact same mitochondrial DNA types inside and outside Australia, he said. He says now a mitochondrial DNA link has been found between tribal Indian populations and Aboriginal Australians, it would be interesting to see if a connection exists through the Y chromosome, where DNA is passed only from fathers to sons.
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 09:58:49 +0000
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