An initial investigation of dental morphology variation among three southern Naga ethnic groups of Northeast India.

Objectives: This study examines dental morphology trait prevalence among three southern Naga groups and compares them to 10 ethnic groups from other regions of South Asia to accomplish two objectives: assess the biological relationship of these Tibeto-Burman-speakers to speakers of non-Tibeto-Burman languages in other South Asian regions, and determine which traits distinguish northeast Indians from other South Asians.

Methods: Dental morphology traits were scored with the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System. Tooth-trait combinations were evaluated for significant inter-trait correlation and intra-trait correspondence within dental fields.

Association of GDNF and CNTNAP2 gene variants with gambling.

Background And Aims: Some form of gambling can be observed in nearly every society, as the gratification felt upon winning in uncertain conditions is universal. A culturally distinct form of gambling, associated with a traditional sporting event of archery known as "," is innate to the province of Meghalaya, India. The objective of this study was to find genetic variants underlying this unique form of behavioral addiction.

Experimental evidence for convergent evolution of maternal care heuristics in industrialized and small-scale populations.

Maternal care decision rules should evolve responsiveness to factors impinging on the fitness pay-offs of care. Because the caretaking environments common in industrialized and small-scale societies vary in predictable ways, we hypothesize that heuristics guiding maternal behaviour will also differ between these two types of populations. We used a factorial vignette experiment to elicit third-party judgements about likely caretaking decisions of a hypothetical mother and her child when various fitness-relevant factors (maternal age and access to resources, and offspring age, sex and quality) were varied systematically in seven populations-three industrialized and four small-scale.

Austro-Asiatic tribes of Northeast India provide hitherto missing genetic link between South and Southeast Asia.

Northeast India, the only region which currently forms a land bridge between the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, has been proposed as an important corridor for the initial peopling of East Asia. Given that the Austro-Asiatic linguistic family is considered to be the oldest and spoken by certain tribes in India, Northeast India and entire Southeast Asia, we expect that populations of this family from Northeast India should provide the signatures of genetic link between Indian and Southeast Asian populations. In order to test this hypothesis, we analyzed mtDNA and Y-Chromosome SNP and STR data of the eight groups of the Austro-Asiatic Khasi from Northeast India and the neighboring Garo and compared with that of other relevant Asian populations.

Y-chromosome evidence suggests a common paternal heritage of Austro-Asiatic populations.

Background: The Austro-Asiatic linguistic family, which is considered to be the oldest of all the families in India, has a substantial presence in Southeast Asia. However, the possibility of any genetic link among the linguistic sub-families of the Indian Austro-Asiatics on the one hand and between the Indian and the Southeast Asian Austro-Asiatics on the other has not been explored till now. Therefore, to trace the origin and historic expansion of Austro-Asiatic groups of India, we analysed Y-chromosome SNP and STR data of the 1222 individuals from 25 Indian populations, covering all the three branches of Austro-Asiatic tribes, viz.