Project description:The history of human settlement in Southeast Asia has been complex and involved several distinct dispersal events. Here we report the analyses of 1825 individuals from Southeast Asia including new genome-wide genotype data for 146 individuals from three Mainland Southeast Asian (Burmese, Malay and Vietnamese) and four Island Southeast Asian (Dusun, Filipino, Kankanaey and Murut) populations. While confirming the presence of previously recognized major ancestry components in the Southeast Asian population structure, we highlight the Kankanaey Igorots from the highlands of the Philippine Mountain Province as likely the closest living representatives of the source population that may have given rise to the Austronesian expansion. This conclusion rests on independent evidence from various analyses of autosomal data and uniparental markers.
Project description:Affymetrix single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array data were collected to study genome-wide patterns of genomic variation across a broad geographical range of Island Southeast Asian populations. This region has experienced an extremely complex admixture history. Initially settled ~50,000 years ago, Island Southeast Asia has since been the recipient of multiple waves of population movements, most recently by Austronesian-speaking groups ultimately from Neolithic mainland Asia and later arrivals during the historic era from India and the Middle East. We have genotyped SNPs in ~500 individuals from 30 populations spanning this entire geographical region, from communities close to mainland Asia through to New Guinea. Particular attention has been paid to genomic data that are informative for population history, including the role of recent arrivals during the historic era and admixture with archaic hominins.
Project description:As Asians are underrepresented across many omics databases limiting the potential of precision medicine of the global population. It is thus important for multi-omics derived quantitative trait loci (QTLs) to fill the knowledge gap of complex traits in the Asian ancestry. Integrating omics data from genomics and epigenomics (including DNA methylation and RNA-seq from blood), we developed iMOMdb, an open-acesss database to enhance disease prediction models and precision medicine outcomes in Asian pregnant women.
Project description:Orangutans are an endangered species whose natural habitats are restricted to the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. For potential species conservation and functional genomics studies, we derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from cryopreserved skin fibroblasts obtained from captive orangutans. We report the gene expression profiles of iPSCs and skin fibroblasts derived from orangtuans.
Project description:The history of human settlement in Southeast Asia has been complex and involved several distinct dispersal events. Here we report the analyses of 1825 individuals from Southeast Asia including new genome-wide genotype data for 146 individuals from three Mainland Southeast Asian (Burmese, Malay and Vietnamese) and four Island Southeast Asian (Dusun, Filipino, Kankanaey and Murut) populations. While confirming the presence of previously recognized major ancestry components in the Southeast Asian population structure, we highlight the Kankanaey Igorots from the highlands of the Philippine Mountain Province as likely the closest living representatives of the source population that may have given rise to the Austronesianexpansion. This conclusion rests on independent evidence from various analyses of autosomal data and uniparental markers. Given the extensive presence of trade goods, cultural and linguistic evidence of Indian influence in Southeast Asia starting from 2.5kya we also detect traces of a South Asian signature in different populations in the region dating to the last couple of thousand years.
Project description:Aposematic color pattern mimicry in Heliconius butterflies provides a well-known example of adaptation via selection on a few genes of large effect. To understand how selection at individual genes can drive the evolution of complex traits, we functionally characterized five novel enhancers of the color pattern gene, optix. In Heliconius erato we found that wing pattern enhancers are largely ancestral, pleiotropic, functionally interdependent, and introgressed between populations. Remarkably, many of these enhancers are also associated with regional pattern variation in the distantly related co-mimics Heliconius melpomene and Heliconius timareta. Our findings provide a case study of how parallel co-evolution of ancient, multifunctional regulatory elements can facilitate the rapid diversification of complex phenotypes, and provide a counterpoint to many widespread assumptions of cis-regulatory evolution.
Project description:Aposematic color pattern mimicry in Heliconius butterflies provides a well-known example of adaptation via selection on a few genes of large effect. To understand how selection at individual genes can drive the evolution of complex traits, we functionally characterized five novel enhancers of the color pattern gene, optix. In Heliconius erato we found that wing pattern enhancers are largely ancestral, pleiotropic, functionally interdependent, and introgressed between populations. Remarkably, many of these enhancers are also associated with regional pattern variation in the distantly related co-mimics Heliconius melpomene and Heliconius timareta. Our findings provide a case study of how parallel co-evolution of ancient, multifunctional regulatory elements can facilitate the rapid diversification of complex phenotypes, and provide a counterpoint to many widespread assumptions of cis-regulatory evolution.