末次盛冰期（the Last Glacial Maximum）是指最近一次冰盖体积最大的时期，距今约2万年前。自此至全新世（距今约1万年前），其间一系列气候振荡以及生态环境变化，均可能影响人类的迁徙活动。在东亚地区，尽管考古学工作不断发现在此时期存在相关迁徙的痕迹，然而这些迁徙活动是否在当今东亚人群的基因库上留下遗传印记却鲜有报道。
我们前期的工作（Zhao et al. 2009 PNAS）表明东亚地区的特有线粒体DNA（mtDNA）单倍型类群（haplogroup）M9a’b是一个追溯末次冰盛期以来人类迁徙活动的有效候选遗传标记。在张亚平院士和孔庆鹏研究员的共同指导下，博士研究生彭旻晟等人对该单倍型类群进行了详尽的分析。结果显示，中国的南部以及东南亚地区是东亚地区末次盛冰期之后的人类迁徙的一个策源地。更为重要的是，该工作在遗传学上首次揭示了一条源自中国南部向西延展到印度东北部和喜马拉雅以南地区（尼泊尔和锡金）的内陆史前迁徙路线。该路线与考古学上源自中国南部和东南亚地区的中石器文化（如：广西白莲洞三期文化，越南和平文化）向西扩散相吻合。基于此，作者推测冰期后有利的气候条件和文化的演进可能促成了当时人群的迁徙扩散。该项工作亦得到了昆明动物研究所姚永刚课题组、云南大学和印度北孟加拉大学的协助。
该研究于1月10日发表于国际开源刊物《生物医学中心--—生物学》（BMC Biology），题为“Inland post-glacial dispersal in East Asia revealed by mitochondrial haplogroup M9a'b”（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
BMC Biology 2011, 9:2doi:10.1186/1741-7007-9-2
Inland post-glacial dispersal in East Asia revealed by mitochondrial haplogroup M9a'b
Min-Sheng Peng , Malliya Gounder Palanichamy , Yong-Gang Yao , Bikash Mitra , Yao-Ting Cheng , Mian Zhao , Jia Liu , Hua-Wei Wang , Hui Pan , Wen-Zhi Wang , A-Mei Zhang , Wen Zhang , Dong Wang , Yang Zou , Yang Yang , Tapas Kumar Chaudhuri , Qing-Peng Kong and Ya-Ping Zhang
Background
Archaeological studies have revealed a series of cultural changes around the Last Glacial Maximum in East Asia; whether these changes left any signatures in the gene pool of East Asians remains poorly indicated. To achieve deeper insights into the demographic history of modern humans in East Asia around the Last Glacial Maximum, we extensively analyzed mitochondrial DNA haplogroup M9a'b, a specific haplogroup that was suggested to have some potential for tracing the migration around the Last Glacial Maximum in East Eurasia.
Results
A total of 837 M9a'b mitochondrial DNAs (583 from the literature, while the remaining 254 were newly collected in this study) pinpointed from over 28,000 subjects residing across East Eurasia were studied here. Fifty-nine representative samples were further selected for total mitochondrial DNA sequencing so we could better understand the phylogeny within M9a'b. Based on the updated phylogeny, an extensive phylogeographic analysis was carried out to reveal the differentiation of haplogroup M9a'b and to reconstruct the dispersal histories.
Conclusions
Our results indicated that southern China and/or Southeast Asia likely served as the source of some post-Last Glacial Maximum dispersal(s). The detailed dissection of haplogroup M9a'b revealed the existence of an inland dispersal in mainland East Asia during the post-glacial period. It was this dispersal that expanded not only to western China but also to northeast India and the south Himalaya region. A similar phylogeographic distribution pattern was also observed for haplogroup F1c, thus substantiating our proposition. This inland post-glacial dispersal was in agreement with the spread of the Mesolithic culture originating in South China and northern Vietnam.
