The unusual distribution of HLA-A*34 [repost]

[okarinaofsteiner]

https://genoplot.com/discussions/topic/1...hla-a-34/1 (can't find the original Anthrogenica thread URL)

I have been exploring HLA genetics recently and fortuitiously came across HLA-A*34 which has an interesting distribution.

It seems to be almost entirely a regional allele, with high frequency amongst Australian aboriginals, Papuans and New Caledonia, lower frequency in SEA Austronesian speakers (e.g. Malays and their cognates) and rare elsewhere. The anomaly are the Taiwanese Ami (and to a lesser extent, their Puyuma neighbours). Perhaps it may have been a marker within that early population ancestral to the aboriginals, Papuans and Negritos that migrated into the region and since diluted out by the entry of later Austronesian-speaking migrants in SEA? The Ami/Puyuma may perhaps have gained the marker via admixture between an earlier Negrito group(s) in Taiwan.

Almost entirely absent from the Chinese.

Side tangent, but the "US Asian" populations appear to correspond to Houston Texas and Minneapolis-Saint Paul, which seem to be decent proxies for the South Vietnam diaspora and for Hmong from Laos respectively. The frequencies of around 0.015-0.02 are higher than what you see among the Han Chinese populations (under 0.01 but also higher than 0 for Southern Han groups), but also lower than Austronesian speaking groups from maritime SEA.