HYDERABAD: Looking at Lakshwadeep’s geographical placement, a team of researchers led by Dr K Thangaraj of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), started tracing out the genetic ancestry of its inhabitants, presuming that the island must have played a major role in early human migration. They expected to find the presence of genetic signatures of ancient people such as Andamanese and the Australian aborigines.
However, after analysing the DNA samples of 557 individuals from eight major islands of Lakshwadeep for mitochondrial DNA and 1,166 individuals for Y-chromosome markers, the scientists found that the islands had very limited genetic mixing.
They found that the aternal side of the islanders had strong genetic linkages with South India, mainly Kerala and also from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. However, the paternal side of the islanders is closer genetically to Maldives and regions from the northern and western part of South Asia. One of the islands, Minicoy, showed wider genetic diversity, as it also had genes related to the people from Eastern and Western Eurasian regions.
The findings of the study effectively means that there is no evidence of early human migration through the Lakshadweep islands, said Dr Thangaraj. Dr Rakesh Mishra, Director, CCMB, said that this genetic study on Lakshadweep islanders would lead to study their health profiles in the near future.