Scientific consortium maps the range of genetic diversity in
Asia, and traces the genetic origins of Asian populations by Dr.
Vikrant Kumar, Genome Institute of Singapore As an
anthropologist, I always wanted to know if Asians, known for
their extensive linguistic and ethnic diversity also have a
substantial level of genetic variation. In other words, do they
have a common or multiple origins? Or whether the ancestors of
Negritos from Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia differ from
those of their neighboring Asians? Or what binds us more:
language or geography? The recent paper published in Science by
the HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Consortium – Mapping Human Genetic
Diversity in Asia quintessentially answers these fundamental
questions which have been floating around for years. To the best
of my understanding, so far, this is the only paper where 73
populations scattered across 10 Asian countries are studied
together through a massive collaborative effort of scientists
from 40 institutes mostly from Asia (~2000 sampl