The genetic data analysis of the origins of Hakka and Holo populations in Taiwan

Pei-Ying Kao(高佩瑩)1, Ming-Hui Chen2, Mei-Lin Pan3, Wei-Der Shu3, Hong-Yan Chu4, Yih-Lan Liu5, Yuh-Jyh Jong6, 7, 8, Wei-An Chang3, 4, *, 

Yeong-Shin Lin1, 9, *

1 Institute of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan

2 Department of Hakka Language and Social Science, National Central University, Taoyuan, 320, Taiwan

3 Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan

4 Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan

5 Institute of Education, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan

6 Department of Biological Science and Technology, College of Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan

7 Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University (KMU), Kaohsiung, 807, Taiwan

8 Departments of Pediatrics and Laboratory Medicine, KMU Hospital, Kaohsiung, 807, Taiwan

9 Department of Biological Science and Technology, College of Biological Science and Technology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan

* To whom correspondence should be addressed 

Hakka and Holo are the top two largest populations in Taiwan. To reveal the genetic structures and origins of the current Taiwanese Hakka and Holo populations which were formed by the past immigration and ethnic fusion events, the College of Hakka Studies and the College of Biological Science and Technology in NYCU united to build a cross-domain research group. We established a stringent criterion for participant recruitment, i.e., the participant’s maternal and paternal grandparents should all speak the same certain Hakka or Holo dialect and reside at the same region. Family members of an eligible participant would be excluded from further recruitment. After extracting DNA from the saliva samples, TWB array plate in National Center for Genome Medicine were used to genotype each collected individual. The whole genome microarray data from 570 participants were obtained. Our preliminary results indicated that the genetic compositions of Hakka populations in Taiwan and Guangdong had already diverged. No evidence shows that the Taiwanese Hakka populations were directly derived from the southern Chinese aborigines. In this project, we combined our array data and datasets from other resources to perform principal components analysis (PCA) and other thorough analyses. We aim to: (1) investigate the genetic structures of these two populations and clarify whether the terms “Hakka” and “Holo” more likely belong to a social / cultural concept, or a biological / genetic concept; (2) compare these two populations with other Asian ethnic populations to reveal their possible paternal and maternal origins; (3) compare the genetic compositions of the internal sub-groups speaking different dialects or residing at different areas of these two populations to reveal how that might be influenced by their ancestries, history of ethnic fusion, and isolation by geographic barriers; (4) investigate whether the stringent criterion for participant recruitment would benefit future similar population studies.