Molecular genetic evidence for the human settlement of the Pacific: analysis of mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome and HLA markers

Present-day Pacific islanders are thought to be the descendants of Neolithi c agriculturalists who expanded from island South-east Asia several thousan d years ago. They speak languages belonging to the Austronesian language fa mily, spoken today in an area spanning half of the circumference of the wor ld, from Madagascar to Easter Island, and from Taiwan to New Zealand. To in vestigate the genetic affinities of the Austronesian-speaking peoples, we a nalysed mitochondrial DNA, HLA and Y-chromosome polymorphisms in individual s from eight geographical locations in Asia and the Pacific (China, Taiwan, Java, New Guinea highlands, New Guinea coast, Trobriand Islands, New Brita in and Western Samoa). Our results show that the demographic expansion of t he Austronesians has left a genetic footprint. However, there is no simple correlation between languages and genes in the Pacific.