PRELIMINARY RESEARCH ON HEREDITARY FEATURES OF YINXU POPULATION

Zeng Wen1,4, Li Jiawei2, Yue Hongbin3, Zhou Hui2,4, Zhu Hong4

1 College of Humanities, Jilin University, 2College of Life Science, Jilin University,
3Institute of Archaeology CASS, 4Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology, Jilin University
E-mail: zengwen85@gmail.com

Introduction Because few genetic analysis results have been published on ancient Chinese populations,
frequency distribution of mtDNA haplogroups can not be analyzed. AMOVA was used instead to
evaluate maternal genetic differentiation between Yinxu and other ancient Chinese (Figure 2). The
Yinxu was the capital during the last phase of the Shang dynasty (ca. 1250-1050 B.C.).
Fst value between Yinxu and DDZ populations was the lowest (-0.00016), The Fst value between
It is located to the northwest of modern Anyang city in Henan province, China. It is one
Yinxu and ZKG populations was second to the lowest. The Yinxu and HB populations presented a
of the oldest and largest archaeological sites in China, famous for the discovery of oldest
lower and nonsignificant pairwise Fst value. However, the highly significant value was observed
Chinese writings, the oracular bones. Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that
between Yinxu and other historical period populations.
the Shang dynasty is first recorded dynasty of China (Li, 1985). The dynasty is also known
as the first monarchical slave state in Chinese history. Until today, no DNA research had The archaeological and anthropological evidence show that people had lived in the Central Plain since
been done on the human remains of Yinxu. Neolithic period, aboriginal population grew fast and immigrants might have poured in as the
settlements developed rapidly. It is possiblethat the society of Yinxu was composed of individuals
Materials and Methods coming from various regions during Shang Dynasty. Therefore we analysis the craniometric data of
0 800 km
the Yinxu and related ancient Chinese populations with Euclidean distance (Figure 2). The Yinxu and
The 37 individuals sampled 0 - 500 m DDZ groups clustered together firstly, then they clustered with ZKG groups. The distance between
Yinxu and JHL, JGZ and XDZ groups were significant. The result of this cluster analysis is similar to
500 - 1000m

in this study were recovered

Neolithic Period
1000 - 2000 m
2000 - 3000 m
Bronze Age

from Liujiazhuang cemetery 3000 - 5000 m

> 5000 m
Iron Age
the distance reflected in pairwise Fst value, suggesting Figure 3 Dendriform representation of cluster analysis based on Dij values

(Figure 1). Most burials at

Russia
there is a close genetic affinity between the Yinxu and 0 5 10 15 20 25

this cemetery are moderate DDZ population, without major geographic barriers, DDZ-I
YX-B
2
10
in tomb size and number of population movement and cultural exchanges potentially HB 13
Helongjiang ZKG 8
grave goods, some of the could occurbetween the West Liao-River valley and Central YXSG 1 2
Mongonlia
burials are relative poor. The Plain (Li H et al, 2011). Furthermore, considering the UXC
JJL
9
11
topographical features of location of Anyang, it is possible
Jilin
characteristics of grave Xinjiang
YBLK TJZ
YBLK-M 6
5

goods showed their UXC DDZ that the Yinxu ancient residents contained the culture and JGZ 4
Liaoning
absorbed the genetic components of various contemporary DDJ
Inner Mongolia JHL
14
affiliation with Yinxu and the Gansu DDJ
XDZ XDZ 7
populations who lived in north China.
YXSG North
tomb owners were probably ZKG Korea
NHL 1
HLHG
Hebei 3
citizens of the city. This Qinghai TJZ Shanxi r
LJ Ningxia Fig 1 Haplogroup
ivfrequenciesSouth
e
of Yinxu and modern population
Figure 4 Frequency distribution of mtDNA haplogroups in modern Chinese populations
assemblage constituted a Shaanxi R
YX low Korea
HB Yel Shandong

representative sample to Jiangsu

Austro-Asiatic
populations
study the genetic structure
Henan
Anhui
Sichuan
Hubei
of Yinxu commoners. Figure 1 Geographic location of ancient groups Daic populations A
C
D
Strict procedures and systematic controls were instituted to minimize the potential for Hmong-Mien
populations
G Northern East
Asian-dominating
M*
exogenous DNA contamination. The DNA extraction combined a complete demineralization M8
haplogroups
M9
process with the QIAquick PCR Purification Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) according to Tibeto-Burman Z
populations N9a
the manufacturer’s protocol. The fragments (393bp) of the mtDNA hypervariable region I Y
B
(HVR I) were amplified, sequenced and analyzed on the ABI PRISM 310 automatic Altaic Populations F Southern East
M7 Asian-dominating
sequencer. According to the East Asian mtDNA classification tree (Kivisild et al., 2002), N* haplogroups
Southern Han R
the haplogroups were assigned using hypervariable region and coding region SNPs data. Chinese other

Haplogroups M, F, D, C, G and B were examined using amplified product-length Northern Han

Chinese
polymorphisms (APLP) method. Haplogroups A, M10, N9a, and Z were identified by Yinxu poptualtion 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
sequencing. Sequence alignments were Abbr. Name of Site Age (BP) Archaeological Culture
analyzed using Clustal X1.83. An analysis NHL Njiuheliang 牛河梁 5000 Hongshan 红山
DDZ Dadianzi 大甸子 4500-3500 Lower Xiajiadian 夏家店下层 The Yinxu population bore a high genetic resemblance in maternal lineages to the northern
of the molecular variance was performed ZKG Zhukaigou 朱开沟 4200-3500 Zhukaigou 朱开沟
Han Chinese and other minority who lives in North China. The result of AMOVA between
on the 393 bp HVS-I sequences (np LJ Lajia 喇家 4000-3800 Qijia 齐家
YXSG Yuxianshanguan 蔚县三关 3000 Lower Xiajiadian 夏家店下层 Yinxu and modern Chinese populations (Table 2) shows that Yinxu population is not
spanning 16 017–16 409), using
HB Hengbei 横北 3000-2800 - significantly different (Fst value: 0.0073, P> 0.05) from northern Han Chinese, but
Areliquin 3.15. The information of ancient JGZ Jinggouzi 井沟子 2500-2000 Jinggouzi 井沟子
significantly different (Fst value> 0.03, P< 0.05) from southern populations. Compared with
Chinese populations which were compared XDZ Xindianzi 新店子 2500 -
TJZ Taojiazhai 陶家寨 1500 - Frequency distribution of mtDNA haplogroups in modern Chinese populations, the Yinxu
with is presented in Table 1. DDJ Dongdajing 东大井 1500 - populations bore a high similarity to some northern Han and Tibeto-Burman populations.
Table 1 Information of ancient Chinese populations
On the basis of principal component analysis of mtDNA haplogroup frequencies (Figure 5),
Results and Discussion the Yinxu population pooled into the cluster Figure 5 PCA of mtDNA haplogroups frequencies of Yinxu
formed of the northern Han, Tibeto-Burman population and modern Chinese populations

Out of 37 specimens examined, the fragments of HVR 1 of 30 samples were successfully sequenced. and Altaic populations. 1.0

They belonged to 30 haplotypes. Using coding region and HVR II SNPs data, combined with HVR I
Table 2 AMOVA between Yinxu and modern Chinese populations
sequences, all haplotypes were attributed to these (sub) haplogroups: A, B, C, D, F, G, M10, N9a,
Grouping F st P 0.5

and Z, which all belong to the East Eurasian pool of mtDNA lineages. The dominant haplogroup in
Yinxu/Northern Han 0.00730 0.07207±0.0264
the Yinxu population was D(43.33%) shared by 13 individuals who were associated with 13 different
PC 2

Yinxu/Southern Han 0.03188 0.00000±0.0000 0.0

haplotypes. The northern East Asian-dominating haplogroups (A, C, D, G and Z) accounted for 80%
Yinxu/Tibeto-Burman 0.01445 0.01802±0.0121
of Liujiazhuang population. Yinxu ancient people
Yinxu/Hmong-Mien 0.05628 0.00000±0.0000 Northern Han Chinese
-0.5
Figure 2 AMOVA between Yinxu and ancient Chinese populations Southern Han Chinese
Yinxu/Daic 0.04184 0.00000±0.0000 Altaic populations
0.08 0.45 Tibeto-Burman populations
Yinxu/Austro-Asiatic 0.05060 0.00000±0.0000 Austro-Asiatic populations
Daic populations
-1.0
0.07 0.40 Yinxu/Alatic 0.00904 0.09910±0.0000 Hmong-Mien populations
-0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0

0.06 0.35
PC 1

0.05 0.30
Conclusion
0.04 0.25
Yinxu population had genetic communication with various contemporary populations and
0.03 0.20 significantly contributed to the formation of the matrilineal genetic heritage of the modern
0.02 0.15
northern Han Chinese population. However, we need research more thoroughly to draw a
further conclusion. The Y-chromosome DNA research is still ongoing, and will provide more
0.01 0.10
genetic information of Yinxu residents soon.
0.00 0.05

-0.01
NHL LJ HB ZKG DDZ YXSG JGZ XDZ TJZ SD
0.00 References Acknowledgment
Fst 0.07274 0.04689 0.01446 0.00654 -0.00016 0.04103 0.05898 0.04725 0.02596 0.04471 Kivisild, T., et al. (2002). Molecular Biology and Evolution 19, 1737–1751. This study was supported by the graduate school of Jilin
Li, H., et al. (2011). Journal of Human Genetics 56, 815–822.
P 0.00000 0.00901 0.06306 0.22523 0.39640 0.12613 0.00000 0.01802 0.03604 0.00000
Wen, B., et al. (2004). Nature 431, 302–305. University, National Philosophy and Social Science Foundation
Fst P Zhao, et al. (2011). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 144, 258–268. (Grant number: 11&zd182)