Journal article

Malagasy Genetic Ancestry Comes from an Historical Malay Trading Post in Southeast Borneo

Alexander Adelaar

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION | OXFORD UNIV PRESS | Published : 2016

Abstract

Malagasy genetic diversity results from an exceptional protoglobalization process that took place over a thousand years ago across the Indian Ocean. Previous efforts to locate the Asian origin of Malagasy highlighted Borneo broadly as a potential source, but so far no firm source populations were identified. Here, we have generated genome-wide data from two Southeast Borneo populations, the Banjar and the Ngaju, together with published data from populations across the Indian Ocean region. We find strong support for an origin of the Asian ancestry of Malagasy among the Banjar. This group emerged from the long-standing presence of a Malay Empire trading post in Southeast Borneo, which favored ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by French ANR


Funding Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology (Jakarta, Indonesia), especially Alida Harahap and Deni Feriandika, and the Department of Health, Banjarmasin city in the province of South Kalimantan, for accommodating the sampling program. The authors wish to acknowledge support from the GenoToul bioinformatics facility of the Genopole Toulouse Midi Pyrenees, France. They also thank Harilanto Razafindrazaka for her useful comments on the manuscript. This research was supported by French ANR grant number ANR-14-CE31-0013-01 (grant OceoAdapto to F.-X.R.), the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (French Archaeological Mission in Borneo (MAFBO) to F.-X.R.), and the French Embassy in Indonesia through its Cultural and Cooperation Services (Institut Francais en Indonesie). Genetic data have been deposited at the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA, https://ega-archive.org), jointly managed by the EBI and CRG, under accession number EGAS00001001841.