MALI: Large numbers of Asian men potentially hundreds of millions possess the genetic markers that link them to 11 powerful, dynastic leaders, including the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan.
Genetic markers are passed down from father to son on the Y chromosome. But after a generation or two, they become very rare or even disappear altogether. In a recent study, though, researchers were able to identify genetic markers on the Y chromosome that weren’t rare at all and they date back thousands of years.
The findings indicate that the number of Asian men who can date their lineage to the same 11 dynastic leaders is potentially quite large.
“It must be in the hundreds of millions that belong to these lineages,” Mark Jobling, the lead researcher on the project and a professor in the University of Leicester’s Department of Genetics, said.
Researchers believe that the dynastic leaders who gave rise to millions of men in the present-day Asian population possessed an enormous amount of power, and that social status was passed down from generation to generation.
The study, published in the European Journal of Human Genetics, analysed the Y chromosomes of 5,321 men from 127 different Asian populations covering a geographic spread from the Middle East to Korea. As expected, the majority of genetic markers carried by these men were unique.
But researchers were able to identify 11 more common markers — some that were present as many as 71 times. Those 11 lineages accounted for an astounding 37.8 per cent of all the Y chromosomes the researchers analysed.
Two of the Y chromosome markers were associated with warlord Khan and the lesser-known Giocangga dynasties — which supports previously published research on these lineages. Nine others, dating from between 2100BC and AD700, were identified in the process.
Previous research and this new study have used a combination of information about the age of the lineages, their geographic locations, and existing oral histories to come up with educated guesses about which dynastic leaders they might be associated with.
But without conclusive genetic testing of remains from these men — including Khan and Giocangga — it will be impossible to prove the connection conclusively.
Still, the results show that in Asia, a particular set of factors might have brought on this phenomenon.
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