Neolithic paternal lineages linked China and Mainland Southeast Asia

Research area:Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyGeneticsAnthropology

What the study found

The study found shared paternal lineages between China and Mainland Southeast Asia that expanded during the Neolithic, with a major rise beginning about 5,000 years ago and peaking between 3,500 and 3,000 years ago. The authors also report that southern Chinese ethnolinguistic minorities show clear paternal substructure, while northern and southern Han populations show minimal paternal differentiation.

Why the authors say this matters

The authors conclude that their findings support a demic diffusion model, meaning the spread of people as well as farming and culture, for Neolithic farming and Han culture. They also state that ancient millet farmers and their Han descendants made significant paternal contributions to the genetic landscape of southern China and Mainland Southeast Asia, followed by additional input from rice farmer-related expansions.

What the researchers tested

The researchers assembled a large paternal genomic dataset of 14,435 ancient and present-day Eurasian individuals, including 584 newly sequenced whole Y-chromosome genomes. They reconstructed a high-resolution Y-chromosome phylogeny, which is a family-tree-like map of paternal lineages, for ancient East and Southeast Asian populations using a resolved modern eastern Eurasian phylogenetic framework.

What worked and what didn't

The analysis identified 138 paternal lineages that diversified during the Neolithic period. Seventeen dominant lineages were shared between China and Mainland Southeast Asia, and these showed the strongest expansion in the time window reported by the authors. The study also found limited paternal differentiation between northern and southern Han groups, but clearer grouping patterns among southern minorities by language family and region.

What to keep in mind

The summary does not describe specific limitations beyond the focus on paternal, Y-chromosome-based ancestry. The findings are framed around the populations and time periods included in the dataset, so the abstract does not claim to cover all ancestry history in the region.

Key points

Shared paternal lineages were identified between China and Mainland Southeast Asia.
These lineages expanded during the Neolithic, with a peak reported between 3,500 and 3,000 years ago.
Northern and southern Han populations showed minimal paternal differentiation in the study.
Southern ethnolinguistic minorities showed clearer paternal substructure by language family and geography.
The authors say the results support a demic diffusion model for Neolithic farming and Han culture.

Disclosure

Research title:: Neolithic paternal lineages linked China and Mainland Southeast Asia
Authors:: Yunhui Liu, Lintao Luo, Yutong Jiang, Minzhu Zhao, Ting Yang, Zhiyong Wang, Lisiteng Luo, Yuhang Feng, Zihao Zhu, Yuzhu Wang, Limei Zhang, Bofeng Zhu, Chao Liu, Renkuan Tang, Mengge Wang, Guanglin He
Institutions:: Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Medical University, Kunming Medical University, Laboratoire de Chémo-biologie synthétique et thérapeutique, Sichuan University, Sichuan University, Sichuan University, Sichuan University, Sichuan University, Sichuan University, Sichuan University, Sichuan University, Sichuan University, Southern Medical University, Southern Medical University, Southern Medical University, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Zhujiang Hospital, Zhujiang Hospital, Zhujiang Hospital
Publication date:: 2026-01-21
DOI:: 10.1002/advs.202515930
OpenAlex record:: View
Image credit:: Photo by adege on Pixabay · Pixabay License

AI provenance: This post was generated by gpt-5.4-mini (OpenAI). The original authors did not write or review this post.