Genetics

[John Lynch]

>>From Pacific Islands Report
GENETIC SURPRISE FROM EARLY PACIFIC VOYAGERS
ALOFI, Niue (April 18, 2001 - Niue Economic Review/New Zealand Herald/PINA
Nius Online)---An international genetics study shows that the female
voyaging ancestors of modern Polynesians attracted Melanesian islanders who
joined the migration, the New Zealand Herald reports.
The surprising finding undermines the "express-train" theory, derived from
archaeological, linguistic and molecular studies, that Austronesian peoples
rapidly expanded into remote Oceania, the newspaper said.
Study team member Dr. Geoff Chambers, of Victoria University's Institute for
Molecular Systematics, told the New Zealand Herald that the scientists had
worked like molecular detectives to follow the trail of genetic evidence.
The researchers, led by scientists from Stanford University in California,
tested DNA samples from 148 contributors of either Maori or Polynesian
descent, the New Zealand Herald said.
Dr. Chambers said analysis of male-specific Y chromosome markers revealed a
pattern of complex relationships among Pacific Island populations.
There were clear differences between the ways men and women had contributed
to the Polynesian gene pool.
The findings indicated that men from Southeast Asia, Melanesia and New
Guinea had been recruited into the voyaging populations.
"This is in marked contrast with female mitochondrial DNA markers which are
more or less exclusively of the Southeast Asia type."
Dr. Chambers said the results prompted a number of questions, but the new
data helped to resolve some long-standing questions about how Polynesian
settlement occurred.
"The whole story makes better sense now that we have evidence that genetic
exchange occurred between the voyagers and resident populations they
encountered along the way."
Dr. Chambers said the research was prompted after his 1998 finding that
Polynesians were closely related to the ancient hill tribe people of Taiwan,
which had caused major international interest.
He predicted there would again be worldwide academic interest in the latest
study results, as the development of the Polynesian ethnic group was the
last chapter in human evolution.


____________________________________________
John Lynch
Professor of Pacific Languages and Pro-Vice Chancellor
Emalus Campus, University of the South Pacific
PMB 072
Port Vila, Vanuatu

Phone:   +678 22748
Fax:       +678 22633
Email:     lynch_j at vanuatu.usp.ac.fj