The peopling of New Guinea: Evidence from class I human leukocyte antigen

This study utilizes newly developed direct DNA typing methods for human leu kocyte antigens (HLA) to provide new information about the peopling of New Guinea. The complete polymorphism of eight Melanesian populations was exami ned. The groups included were highlanders, northern and southern highlands fringe populations, a Sepik population. northern and southern coastal New G uinea populations, and populations from the Bismarck Archipelago and New Ca ledonia. The study concluded that, based on HLA and other evidence, Melanes ians are likely to have evolved largely from the same ancestral stock as Ab original Australians but to have since differentiated. Highlanders are like ly to be descendants of earlier migrations who have been isolated for a lon g period of time. Northern highlands fringe and Sepik populations are likel y to share a closer common ancestry but to have differentiated due to long term isolation and the relative proximity to the coast of the Sepik. Southe rn fringe populations are likely to have a different origin, possibly from the Gulf region, although there may be some admixture with neighboring grou ps. Coastal populations have a wider range of polymorphisms because of the genetic trail left by later population movement along the coast from Asia t hat did not reach Australia or remote Oceania, Other polymorphisms found in these populations may have been introduced by the movement of Austronesian -speaking and other more recent groups of people into the Pacific, because they share many polymorphisms with contemporary southeast Asians, Polynesia ns, and Micronesians that are nor found in highlanders or Aboriginal Austra lians. There is evidence suggestive of later migration to Melanesia from Po lynesia and Micronesia.