The Y-chromosome landscape of the Philippines: extensive heterogeneity and varying genetic affinities of Negrito and non-Negrito groups.

The Philippines exhibits a rich diversity of people, languages, and culture, including so-called 'Negrito' groups that have for long fascinated anthropologists, yet little is known about their genetic diversity. We report here, a survey of Y-chromosome variation in 390 individuals from 16 Filipino ethnolinguistic groups, including six Negrito groups, from across the archipelago. We find extreme diversity in the Y-chromosome lineages of Filipino groups with heterogeneity seen in both Negrito and non-Negrito groups, which does not support a simple dichotomy of Filipino groups as Negrito vs non-Negrito.

STR polymorphisms in Philippine ethnolinguistic groups: evaluation of forensic utility.

Population data was collected for the STR loci F13AO1, FES/FPS, HUMvWA, and HUMTHO1, in three major Philippine ethnolinguistic groups and used to estimate statistical parameters for identity testing in forensic work on Filipinos. The Cebuano, Ilocano, and Pampango populations in the Philippines were studied because they are among the biggest linguistic groups in the country, thus their genotypic profiles should substantially represent those of many Filipinos. The number of alleles varied from 4 to 9 at all loci, falling within the range observed for other local and world populations.