TESTING MIGRATION PATTERNS AND ESTIMATING FOUNDING POPULATION-SIZE INPOLYNESIA BY USING HUMAN MTDNA SEQUENCES

The hypervariable 1 region of human mtDNA shows markedly reduced varia bility in Polynesians, and this variability decreases from western to eastern Polynesia. Fifty-four sequences from New Zealand Maori show th at the mitochondrial variability with just four haplotypes is the lowe st of any sizeable human group studied and that the frequency of haplo types is markedly skewed, The Maori sequences, combined with 268 publi shed sequences from the Pacific, are consistent with a series of found er effects from small populations settling new island groups. The dist ributions of haplotypes were used to estimate the number of females in founding population of New Zealand Maori. The three-step simulation u sed a randomly selected founding population from eastern Polynesia, an expansionary phase in New Zealand, and finally the random selection o f 54 haplotypes. The results are consistent with a founding population that includes approximate to 70 women (between 50 and 100), and sensi tivity analysis shows that this conclusion is robust to small changes in haplotype frequencies. This size is too large for models postulatin g a very small founding population of ''castaways,'' but it is consist ent with a general understanding of Maori oral history as well as the results of recent canoe voyages recreating early trans-oceanic voyages .