Paternal heritage of the Han Chinese in Henan province (Central China): high diversity and evidence of <i>in situ</i> Neolithic expansions

<b>Background:</b> Due to their long history, complex admixture processes and large population sizes, more research is required to explore the fine genetic structure of Han populations from different geographic locations of China. <b>Aim:</b> To characterise the paternal genetic structure of the Han Chinese in Henan province, which was once the central living region of the ancient Huaxia population, the precursors of the Han Chinese. <b>Subjects and methods:</b> We sequenced Y chromosomes of 60 males from Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and reconstructed a phylogenetic tree for these samples with age estimation. <b>Results:</b> We observed high diversity of paternal lineages in our collection. We found that the <i>in situ</i> Neolithic expansion of the “Major lineages” contributed to a large portion of the paternal gene pool of the Han population in Henan Province. We also detected a large number of “Minor lineages” that diverged in the Palaeolithic Age. <b>Conclusion:</b> We suggest that the high genetic diversity in the paternal gene pool of modern Han populations is mainly attributed to the reservation of a larger number of lineages that diverged in the Palaeolithic Age, while the recent expansion of limited lineages contributed to the majority of the gene pool of modern Han populations. We propose that such a structure is a basal characteristic for the genetic structure of modern Han populations.

**背景**：汉族人群历史悠久、混合过程复杂且种群规模庞大，仍需开展更多研究以解析中国不同地域汉族人群的精细遗传结构。**研究目的**：旨在解析河南省汉族人群的父系遗传结构——河南省曾是古代华夏族（汉族的前身）的核心聚居区域。**对象与方法**：本研究对来自河南省郑州市的60名男性个体的Y染色体进行测序，并结合年龄估算为所有样本构建系统发育树。**结果**：本研究样本的父系谱系呈现出较高的多样性。研究发现，「主要支系」的原位新石器时代扩张，构成了河南省汉族人群父系基因库的重要组成部分；同时还检测到大量在旧石器时代发生分化的「次要支系」。**结论**：本研究认为，现代汉族人群父系基因库的高遗传多样性，主要源于保留了大量旧石器时代分化的谱系；而有限支系的近期扩张则构成了现代汉族人群基因库的主体。我们提出，该遗传结构是现代汉族人群遗传结构的基础特征。

搜集汇总

背景与挑战

背景概述

该数据集聚焦于中国河南汉族人群的父系遗传研究，通过分析60名男性的Y染色体序列，揭示了父系谱系的高度多样性。研究发现，新石器时代“主要谱系”的原位扩张对河南汉族父系基因库贡献显著，同时保留了大量旧石器时代分化的“次要谱系”，表明现代汉族的高遗传多样性源于古老谱系的保留与近期有限谱系的扩张。