On the origin of Tibetans and their genetic basis in adapting high-altitude environments

Since their arrival in the Tibetan Plateau during the Neolithic Age, Tibetans have been well-adapted to extreme environmental conditions and possess genetic variation that reflect their living environment and migratory history. To investigate the origin of Tibetans and the genetic basis of adaptatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2011-02, Vol.6 (2), p.e17002
Main Authors: Wang, Binbin, Zhang, Yong-Biao, Zhang, Feng, Lin, Hongbin, Wang, Xumin, Wan, Ning, Ye, Zhenqing, Weng, Haiyu, Zhang, Lili, Li, Xin, Yan, Jiangwei, Wang, Panpan, Wu, Tingting, Cheng, Longfei, Wang, Jing, Wang, Duen-Mei, Ma, Xu, Yu, Jun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Adaptation, Biological - genetics
Altitude
Altitude Sickness - genetics
Asian Continental Ancestry Group - ethnology
Asian Continental Ancestry Group - genetics
Biology
Blood vessels
Cell Line, Transformed
Embryos
Environment
Environmental conditions
Family planning
Female
Genes
Genetic diversity
Genetic Variation - physiology
Genetics, Population
Genomes
Genomics
High altitude
High altitude environments
Humans
Hypoxia
Laboratories
Linkage Disequilibrium
Male
Migration
Mitochondrial DNA
Physiology
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide - physiology
Population
Pregnancy
Settlers
Single-nucleotide polymorphism
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Stone Age
Studies
Tibet - ethnology
Valleys
Vascular endothelial growth factor
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Summary:Since their arrival in the Tibetan Plateau during the Neolithic Age, Tibetans have been well-adapted to extreme environmental conditions and possess genetic variation that reflect their living environment and migratory history. To investigate the origin of Tibetans and the genetic basis of adaptation in a rigorous environment, we genotyped 30 Tibetan individuals with more than one million SNP markers. Our findings suggested that Tibetans, together with the Yi people, were descendants of Tibeto-Burmans who diverged from ancient settlers of East Asia. The valleys of the Hengduan Mountain range may be a major migration route. We also identified a set of positively-selected genes that belong to functional classes of the embryonic, female gonad, and blood vessel developments, as well as response to hypoxia. Most of these genes were highly correlated with population-specific and beneficial phenotypes, such as high infant survival rate and the absence of chronic mountain sickness.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0017002