Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 31, 2026

Detection of Rare Genomic Variants from Pooled Sequencing Using SPLINTER
Published on: June 23, 2012
Insertion/deletion polymorphisms in tribal populations of southern India and their possible evolutionary implications
H Vishwanathan1, Deepa Edwin, M V Usharani
1Division of Genetics, Department of Environmental Sciences, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore-641 046, India.
Abstract:
India has the unique distinction of having perhaps the largest diversities, both biological and cultural. The Nilgiri Hills of southern India, a home for several tribal pockets representing different genetic isolates, provides a genetic wealth to understand human evolution. We have analyzed eight widely distributed polymorphic insertion/deletion loci (AluAPO, AluACE, AluDI, AluPLAT, AluPV92, AluFXIIIB, CD4 del and mtNUC) in 250 unrelated individuals from five tribal populations (Badaga, Irula, Kota, Kurumba, and Toda). All loci were highly polymorphic except the CD4 del locus, at which the deletion allele was fixed in Kotas and Kurumbas. The levels of average heterozygosities were found to be high in all the populations. In most populations, they were also higher than those predicted by the island model of population structure. The gene diversity (GST = 8.3%) was found to be higher than that in populations of most global regions with the exception of Africa. It is clear from the present study that drift effects could have accentuated the process of genetic differentiation of the tribal populations. The possibility of an early demographic expansion of modern humans within south India also cannot be ruled out.
Related Concept Videos
Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
In contrast, regions which code...
Overview of Transposition and Recombination
Non-LTR Retrotransposons
Comparing Copy Number Variations and SNPs
Copy number variations or CNVs are the structural variations that cover more than 1kb of DNA sequence. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), on the other hand, is a single nucleotide change or a point mutation that is found in more than 1%...
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms-SNPs

