Much later, probably driven by a Neolithic agricultural revolution, the Tibeto-Burman (Burmese-Lolo and Karen) branches of Sino-Tibetans moved back southwards through Yunnan to Myanmar and the SEA peninsula. So, also the initial colonization of China and the rest of East Asia had its origin in SEA. Following the glacial retreat in that area, also a north- and eastward migration towards the Yangtse and Yellow River basins of the ancestors of Sino-Tibetan tribes began. This dataset from Myanmar is of great historic interest, because SEA is a key region of human population history with a first entry of anatomically modern humans of African descent about 60,000 years ago, who continued their way through the coastal route to Island SEA and Australia. In order to close this gap on the genetic map of Southeast Asia, we collected DNA samples from 327 unrelated donors originating from 13 of the 14 political regions representing the most important ethnic groups of Myanmar and genotyped the entire mitochondrial control region (16024–16569 1–576) of all samples and the entire mitochondrial genome of a subset of 44 selected samples. Although Myanmar plays a crucial role for the population history of Southeast Asia, due to the long-lasting isolation of the country by its political regime, only very few mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data are available so far. Thanks to increasing knowledge on its mutation rate mtDNA is also a valid tool for age estimates. The fast evolutionary rate and the non-recombining uniparental inheritance of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) generally qualifies mtDNA as highly potent marker for population and phylogenetic studies and mtDNA analyses have a long tradition in the exploration of human evolution. Myanmar (Burma), the largest country in Mainland Southeast Asia (SEA), covers an area of 676,578 km 2 and is inhabited by ~55 million people. Age estimates of the newly described haplogroups point to the existence of evolutionary windows where climatic and cultural changes gave rise to mitochondrial haplogroup diversification in Asia. Migration analyses indicated a considerable genetic exchange with an overall positive migration balance from Myanmar to neighboring countries. The population structure of the extraordinarily diverse Bamar differed from that of the Karen people who displayed signs of genetic isolation. Population genetic analyses of Burmese control region sequences combined with population data from neighboring countries revealed that the Myanmar haplogroup distribution showed a typical Southeast Asian pattern, but also Northeast Asian and Indian influences. The multi-ethnic population and the complex history of Myanmar were reflected in its mtDNA heterogeneity. Phylogenetic analyses of the entire mtDNA genomes uncovered eight new haplogroups and three unclassified basal M-lineages. Therefore, we sequenced the mtDNA control region of 327 unrelated donors and the complete mitochondrial genome of 44 selected individuals according to highest quality standards. ![]() Our aim was to search for genetic footprints of Myanmar’s geographic, historic and sociocultural characteristics and to contribute to the picture of human colonization by describing and dating of new mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups. Since its independence from British occupation, tensions between the ruling Bamar and ethnic minorities increased. Ruled by changing kingdoms and dynasties and lying on the trade route between India and China, Myanmar was influenced by numerous cultures. Myanmar is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia with a population of 55 million people subdivided into more than 100 ethnic groups.
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