Genomic portrait and relatedness patterns of the Iron Age Log Coffin culture in northwestern Thailand.

The Iron Age of highland Pang Mapha, northwestern Thailand, is characterised by a mortuary practice known as Log Coffin culture. Dating between 2300 and 1000 years ago, large coffins carved from individual teak trees have been discovered in over 40 caves and rock shelters. While previous studies focussed on the cultural development of the Log Coffin-associated sites, the origins of the practice, connections with other wooden coffin-using groups in Southeast Asia, and social structure within the region remain understudied. Here, we present genome-wide data from 33 individuals from five Log Coffin culture sites to study genetic ancestry profiles and genetic interconnectedness. The Log Coffin-associated genomes can be modelled as an admixture between Hòabìnhian hunter-gatherer-, Yangtze River farmer-, and Yellow River farmer-related ancestry. This indicates different influence spheres from Bronze and Iron Age individuals from northeastern Thailand as reflected by cultural practices. Our analyses also identify close genetic relationships within the sites and more distant connections between sites in the same and different river valleys. In combination with high mitochondrial haplogroup diversity and genome-wide homogeneity, the Log Coffin-associated groups from northwestern Thailand seem to have been a large, well-connected community, where genetic relatedness played a significant role in the mortuary ritual.

Late Pleistocene human paleoecology in the highland savanna ecosystem of mainland Southeast Asia.

The late Pleistocene settlement of highland settings in mainland Southeast Asia by Homo sapiens has challenged our species's ability to occupy mountainous landscapes that acted as physical barriers to the expansion into lower-latitude Sunda islands during sea-level lowstands. Tham Lod Rockshelter in highland Pang Mapha (northwestern Thailand), dated between 34,000 and 12,000 years ago, has yielded evidence of Hoabinhian lithic assemblages and natural resource use by hunter-gatherer societies. To understand the process of early settlements of highland areas, we measured stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of Tham Lod human and faunal tooth enamel. Our assessment of the stable carbon isotope results suggests long-term opportunistic behavior among hunter-gatherers in foraging on a variety of food items in a mosaic environment and/or inhabiting an open forest edge during the terminal Pleistocene. This study reinforces the higher-latitude and -altitude extension of a forest-grassland mosaic ecosystem or savanna corridor (farther north into northwestern Thailand), which facilitated the dispersal of hunter-gatherers across mountainous areas and possibly allowed for consistency in a human subsistence strategy and Hoabinhian technology in the highlands of mainland Southeast Asia over a 20,000-year span near the end of the Pleistocene.

Autosomal Microsatellite Investigation Reveals Multiple Genetic Components of the Highlanders from Thailand.

The hill tribes of northern Thailand comprise nine officially recognized groups: the Austroasiatic-speaking (AA) Khmu, Htin and Lawa; the Hmong-Mien-speaking (HM) IuMien and Hmong; and the Sino-Tibetan-speaking (ST) Akha, Karen, Lahu and Lisu. Except the Lawa, the rest of the hill tribes migrated into their present habitats only very recently. The Thai hill tribes were of much interest to research groups focusing on study of cultural and genetic variation because of their unique languages and cultures. So far, there have been several genetic studies of the Thai hill tribes. However, complete forensic microsatellite database of the Thai hill tribes is still lacking. To construct such database, we newly generated 654 genotypes of 15 microsatellites commonly used in forensic investigation that belong to all the nine hill tribes and also non-hill tribe highlanders from northern Thailand. We also combined 329 genotypes from previous studies of northern Thai populations bringing to a total of 983 genotypes, which were then subjected to genetic structure and population relationships analyses. Our overall results indicated homogenous genetic structure within the HM- and Tai-Kadai (TK)-speaking groups, large genetic divergence of the HM-speaking Hmong but not IuMien from the other Thai groups, and genetic heterogeneity within the ST- and AA-speaking groups, reflecting different population interactions and admixtures. In addition to establishing genetic relationships within and among these populations, our finding, which provides a more complete picture of the forensic microsatellite database of the multiple Thai highland dwellers, would not only serve to expand and strengthen forensic investigation in Thailand, but would also benefit its neighboring countries of Laos and Myanmar, from which many of the Thai hill tribes originated and where large populations of these ethnic groups still reside.

Reconstructing the Human Genetic History of Mainland Southeast Asia: Insights from Genome-Wide Data from Thailand and Laos.

Thailand and Laos, located in the center of Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA), harbor diverse ethnolinguistic groups encompassing all five language families of MSEA: Tai-Kadai (TK), Austroasiatic (AA), Sino-Tibetan (ST), Hmong-Mien (HM), and Austronesian (AN). Previous genetic studies of Thai/Lao populations have focused almost exclusively on uniparental markers and there is a paucity of genome-wide studies. We therefore generated genome-wide SNP data for 33 ethnolinguistic groups, belonging to the five MSEA language families from Thailand and Laos, and analyzed these together with data from modern Asian populations and SEA ancient samples. Overall, we find genetic structure according to language family, albeit with heterogeneity in the AA-, HM-, and ST-speaking groups, and in the hill tribes, that reflects both population interactions and genetic drift. For the TK speaking groups, we find localized genetic structure that is driven by different levels of interaction with other groups in the same geographic region. Several Thai groups exhibit admixture from South Asia, which we date to ∼600-1000 years ago, corresponding to a time of intensive international trade networks that had a major cultural impact on Thailand. An AN group from Southern Thailand shows both South Asian admixture as well as overall affinities with AA-speaking groups in the region, suggesting an impact of cultural diffusion. Overall, we provide the first detailed insights into the genetic profiles of Thai/Lao ethnolinguistic groups, which should be helpful for reconstructing human genetic history in MSEA and selecting populations for participation in ongoing whole genome sequence and biomedical studies.

Cultural variation impacts paternal and maternal genetic lineages of the Hmong-Mien and Sino-Tibetan groups from Thailand.

The Hmong-Mien (HM) and Sino-Tibetan (ST) speaking groups are known as hill tribes in Thailand; they were the subject of the first studies to show an impact of patrilocality vs. matrilocality on patterns of mitochondrial (mt) DNA vs. male-specific portion of the Y chromosome (MSY) variation. However, HM and ST groups have not been studied in as much detail as other Thai groups; here we report and analyze 234 partial MSY sequences (∼2.3 mB) and 416 complete mtDNA sequences from 14 populations that, when combined with our previous published data, provides the largest dataset yet for the hill tribes. We find a striking difference between Hmong and IuMien (Mien-speaking) groups: the Hmong are genetically different from both the IuMien and all other Thai groups, whereas the IuMien are genetically more similar to other linguistic groups than to the Hmong. In general, we find less of an impact of patrilocality vs. matrilocality on patterns of mtDNA vs. MSY variation than previous studies. However, there is a dramatic difference in the frequency of MSY and mtDNA lineages of Northeast Asian (NEA) origin vs. Southeast Asian (SEA) origin in HM vs. ST groups: HM groups have high frequencies of NEA MSY lineages but lower frequencies of NEA mtDNA lineages, while ST groups show the opposite. A potential explanation is that the ancestors of Thai HM groups were patrilocal, while the ancestors of Thai ST groups were matrilocal. Overall, these results attest to the impact of cultural practices on patterns of mtDNA vs. MSY variation.

A Matrilineal Genetic Perspective of Hanging Coffin Custom in Southern China and Northern Thailand.

Hanging Coffin is a unique and ancient burial custom that has been practiced in southern China, Southeast Asia, and near Oceania regions for more than 3,000 years. Here, we conducted mitochondrial whole-genome analyses of 41 human remains sampled from 13 Hanging Coffin sites in southern China and northern Thailand, which were dated between ∼2,500 and 660 years before present. We found that there were genetic connections between the Hanging Coffin people living in different geographic regions. Notably, the matrilineal genetic diversity of the Hanging Coffin people from southern China is much higher than those from northern Thailand, consistent with the hypothesized single origin of the Hanging Coffin custom in southern China about 3,600 years ago, followed by its dispersal in southern China through demic diffusion, whereas the major dispersal pattern in Southeast Asia is cultural assimilation in the past 2,000 years.

Analysis of the Preserved Amino Acid Bias in Peptide Profiles of Iron Age Teeth from a Tropical Environment Enable Sexing of Individuals Using Amelogenin MRM.

The first dental proteomic profile of Iron Age individuals (ca. 2000-1000 years B.P.), collected from the site of Long Long Rak rock shelter in northwest Thailand is described. A bias toward the preservation of the positively charged aromatic, and polar amino acids is observed. It is evident that the 212 proteins identified (2 peptide, FDR <1%) comprise a palimpsest of alterations that occurred both ante-mortem and post-mortem. Conservation of amino acids within the taphonomically resistant crystalline matrix enabled the identification of both X and Y chromosome linked amelogenin peptides. A novel multiple reaction monitoring method using the sex specific amelogenin protein isoforms is described and indicate the teeth are of male origin. Functional analysis shows an enrichment of pathways associated with metabolic disorders and shows a capacity for harboring these conditions prior to death. Stable isotope analysis using carbon isotopes highlights the strongly C3 based (≈80%) diet of the Long Long Rak cemetery people, which probably comprised rice combined with protein from freshwater fish among other food items. The combination of proteomics and stable isotope analysis provides a complementary strategy for assessing the demography, diet, lifestyle, and possible diseases experienced by ancient populations.

The prehistoric peopling of Southeast Asia.

The human occupation history of Southeast Asia (SEA) remains heavily debated. Current evidence suggests that SEA was occupied by Hòabìnhian hunter-gatherers until ~4000 years ago, when farming economies developed and expanded, restricting foraging groups to remote habitats. Some argue that agricultural development was indigenous; others favor the "two-layer" hypothesis that posits a southward expansion of farmers giving rise to present-day Southeast Asian genetic diversity. By sequencing 26 ancient human genomes (25 from SEA, 1 Japanese Jomon), we show that neither interpretation fits the complexity of Southeast Asian history: Both Hòabìnhian hunter-gatherers and East Asian farmers contributed to current Southeast Asian diversity, with further migrations affecting island SEA and Vietnam. Our results help resolve one of the long-standing controversies in Southeast Asian prehistory.