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Genetic studies on the Sinhalese is part of population genetics investigating the origins of the Sinhalese populations today.

Studies looking at the origin of the Sinhalese have been contradictory. Older studies suggest a predominantly Tamil origin followed by a significant Bengali contribution with no North Western Indian contribution. While modern studies point towards a predominantly Bengali contribution and a minor Tamil and North Western Indian contribution.

All studies agree however, that the there is a significant relationship between the Sinhalese and the Tamil and Bengali. This is also supported by a genetic distance study, which showed low differences in genetic distance between the Sinhalese and the Tamil, Keralite and Bengali volunteers.

Predominantly Bengali origin

An Alu polymorphism analysis of Sinhalese from Colombo by Dr Sarabjit Mastanain in 2007 using Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati (Patel), and Punjabi as parental populations found different proportions of genetic contribution:

A genetic distance analysis by Dr Robet Kirk also concluded that the modern Sinhalese are most closely related to the Bengalis.

This is further substantiated by a VNTR study, which found 82% of Sinhalese genes to originate from Bengali admixture:

D1S80 allele frequency (A popular allele for genetic fingerprinting) is also similar between the Sinhalese and Bengalis, suggesting the two groups are closely related. The Sinhalese also have similar frequencies of the allele MTHFR 677T (13%) to West Bengalis (17%).

These findings are compatible with the historical chronicles the Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa. Which describe a Vanga prince (Prince Vijaya)from Sinhapura in Lata or Lala of being an early settler of Sri Lanka and the progenitor of the Sinhalese. The Vangas are generally identified as Bengalis. On the other hand, Lata is identified with modern day Gujarat, and Sinhapura with modern Sihor in the Kathiawar peninsular of Gujarat. Furthermore, the Mahawamsa states that Vijaya landed first at Supparaka (identified with modern Sopara, in the Thane distrcit of Maharashtra), while the Dipavamsa mentions 'Suppara' and a further intermediate port, Bharukkaccha (modern Bharuch, a port in Gujarat, at the mouth of the Narmada). Vijaya's grandfather was reputed to be a Lion, and Lions have not lived in Bengal in historic times, while they have in Gujarat so it was possible that the Lion image was either borrowed or.

Evidence for North East Indian origin

A study in 2007 found similar frequencies of the allele HLA-A*02 in sinhalese (7.4%) and North Indian subjects (6.7%). HLA-A*02 is a rare allele which has a relatively high frequency in North Indian populations and is considered to be a novel allele among the North Indian population. This suggests possible North Indian origin of the Sinhalese.

Linguistically the Sinhalese are closer to North Indians than South Indians, as the Sinhala language is a member of the Indo-Aryan languages.

Tamil Genetic Admixture

According to a genetic admixture study by Dr. Gautam K. Kshatriya performed in 1995, the Sinhalese have their origins in North-East India, particularly West Bengal .

Due to relatively easy access from South India and Tamil workers being brought from South India under British rule, mixing of the Tamil and Sinhalese groups has been occurring for many generations. The Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamils have been in close proximity to each other historically, linguistically, and culturally for over 2000 years. For example, the Sinhalese and South Indian Tamils have similar cultures in terms of kinship classification and housing. This explains Kshatriya's findings of a common gene pool of 55%.

When studying Genetic Flow from Southern Asia, Kshatriya found that some sinhalese had the greatest contribution from South Indian Tamils (69.86% +/- 0.61), followed by Bengalis from the North East of India (25.41% +/- 0.51). Similarly, Sri Lankan Tamils have a greater contribution from the Sinhalese of Sri Lanka (55.20% +/- 9.47) than Indian Tamils (16.63% +/- 8.73). The study also suggested that 75% of Sinhalese genes have Tamil admixture and the Sinhalese have the least genetic affinity with Western and North Western Indians .

Relationship to other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka

A study looking at genetic variation of the FUT2 gene in the Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamil population, found similar genetic backgrounds for both ethnic groups, with little genetic flow from other neighbouring Asian population groups. Studies have also found no significant difference with regards to blood group, blood genetic markers and single-nucleotide polymorphism between the Sinhalese and other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. Another study has also found "no significant genetic variation among the major ethnic groups in Sri Lanka". This is further supported by a study which found very similar frequencies of alleles MTHFR 677T, F2 20210A & F5 1691A in South Indian Tamil, Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamil and Moor populations.

Relationship to East Asians

There is a small possibility that the Sinhalese may have received genes from neighboring East Asian populations due to their North East Indian ancestors.

Upon migration to the island of Sri Lanka, the East Asian genetic flow would have slowly diminished thus leading to higher genetic affinities with South and South East Asian populations of Bangladesh,Nepal and Bhutan which is found in the modern population.

Skin pigmentation

In 2008 a study looked at SLC24A5 polymorphism which accounts for 25-40% of the skin complexion difference between Europeans and Africans and up to 30% of skin colour variation in South Asians. The study found that the rs1426654 SNP of SLC24A5, which is fixed in European populations and found more commonly in light skinned individuals than dark skinned individuals (49% compared to 10%), has a frequency of ~50% in the Sinhalese and ~30% in Sri Lankan tamils. This allele could have arisen in the Sinhalese due to North East Asian genetic admixture, migration or strong selection factors.

References

1. ^ Kshatriya GK (1995). "Genetic affinities of Sri Lankan populations". Human Biology. 67 (6): 843–66. PMID 8543296. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
2. ^ Saha, N. (1988). "Blood genetic markers in Sri Lankan populations—reappraisal of the legend of Prince Vijaya". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 76 (2): 217–25. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330760210. PMID 3166342.
3. ^ Kirk, R. L. (1976). "The legend of Prince Vijaya — a study of Sinhalese origins". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 45: 91. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330450112.
4. ^ Papiha SS, Mastana SS, Purandare CA, Jayasekara R, Chakraborty R (1996). "Population genetic study of three VNTR loci (D2S44, D7S22, and D12S11) in five ethnically defined populations of the Indian subcontinent". Human Biology. 68 (5): 819–35. PMID 8908803. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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6. Surinder Singh Papiha (1999). Genomic Diversity: Applications in Human Population Genetics. London: Springer. 7.
7. Mukhopadhyay, 2007 K. Mukhopadhyay et al., MTHFR gene polymorphisms analyzed in population from Kolkata, West Bengal, Indian J. Human Genet. 13 (2007), p. 38.
8. ^ Vajira H.W. Dissanayake, Lakshini Y. Weerasekera, C. Gayani Gammulla, Rohan W. Jayasekara, Prevalence of genetic thrombophilic polymorphisms in the Sri Lankan population -- implications for association study design and clinical genetic testing services, Experimental and Molecular Pathology, Volume 87, Issue 2, October 2009, Pages 159-162
9. Malavige, G. N.; Rostron, T.; Seneviratne, S. L.; Fernando, S.; Sivayogan, S.; Wijewickrama, A.; Ogg, G. S. (2007). "HLA analysis of Sri Lankan Sinhalese predicts North Indian origin". International Journal of Immunogenetics. 34 (5): 313–5. doi:10.1111/j.1744-313X.2007.00698.x. PMID 17845299.
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/Indo-Aryan_languages
11. The Structure of the Sinhalese Kindred: A Re-Examination of the Dravidian Terminology, Nur Yalman, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 64, No. 3, Part 1 (Jun., 1962), pp. 548-575 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/667927
12. Soejima M, Koda Y (2005). "Denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography-based genotyping and genetic variation of FUT2 in Sri Lanka". Transfusion. 45 (12): 1934–9. doi:10.1111/j.1537-2995.2005.00651.x. PMID 16371047. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
13. D. F. Roberts, C. K. Creen, K. P. Abeyaratne, Man, New Series, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Mar., 1972), pp. 122-127, Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2799860
14. Dissanayake VH, Giles V, Jayasekara RW; et al. (2009). "A study of three candidate genes for pre-eclampsia in a Sinhalese population from Sri Lanka". The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research. 35 (2): 234–42. doi:10.1111/j.1447-0756.2008.00926.x. PMID 19708171. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
15. Ruwan J. Illeperuma, Samudi N. Mohotti, Thilini M. De Silva, Neil D. Fernandopulle, W.D. Ratnasooriya, Genetic profile of 11 autosomal STR loci among the four major ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, Forensic Science International: Genetics, Volume 3, Issue 3, June 2009, Pages e105-e106
16. Malavige, G. N.; Rostron, T.; Seneviratne, S. L.; Fernando, S.; Sivayogan, S.; Wijewickrama, A.; Ogg, G. S. (2007). "HLA analysis of Sri Lankan Sinhalese predicts North Indian origin". International Journal of Immunogenetics 34 (5): 313–5. doi:10.1111/j.1744-313X.2007.00698.x. PMID 17845299.
17. Soejima, Mikiko; Koda, Yoshiro (2006). "Population differences of two coding SNPs in pigmentation-related genes SLC24A5 and SLC45A2". International Journal of Legal Medicine. 121 (1): 36–9. doi:10.1007/s00414-006-0112-z. PMID 16847698.
18. Roychoudhury AK, Nei M (1985) Genetic relationships between Indians and their neighboring populations. Hum Hered 35:201–206
19. Peiris, Roshan; Takahashi, Masami; Sasaki, Kayoko; Kanazawa, Eisaku (2007). "Root and canal morphology of permanent mandibular molars in a Sri Lankan population". Odontology. 95 (1): 16–23. doi:10.1007/s10266-007-0074-8. PMID 17660977.
20. Razib. (2005). Race is skin deep. Available: http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2005/12/race-is-skin-deep.php. Last accessed 3 March 2010.
21. Razib. (2007). Why brown people are different. Available: . http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/2007/09/why_brown_people_are_different.php. Last accessed 3 March 2010.
22. ^ Soejima M, Koda Y (2007). "Population differences of two coding SNPs in pigmentation-related genes SLC24A5 and SLC45A2". International Journal of Legal Medicine. 121 (1): 36–9. doi:10.1007/s00414-006-0112-z. PMID 16847698. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
23. Stanford University. (2009). rs1426654 Chromosome chr15:46213776. Available: http://hgdp.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/alfreqs.cgi?pos=46213776&chr=chr15&rs=rs1426654&imp=true. Last accessed 3 March 2010.

External links

• Use dmy dates from July 2013
• Genetic genealogy
• Population genetics
• Indo-Aryan peoples
• Sinhalese people