Y Chromosome of Aisin Gioro, the Imperial House of Qing Dynasty

TL;DR

This study analyzes the Y chromosome of modern males claiming Aisin Gioro heritage, revealing a rare haplotype linked to the Qing Dynasty's imperial family, and provides a genetic basis for pedigree research of this historical lineage.

Contribution

It identifies a specific Y chromosome haplotype associated with the Aisin Gioro family, establishing a genetic marker for Qing Dynasty imperial lineage.

Findings

Identified a rare Y chromosome haplotype linked to Aisin Gioro family

Confirmed the haplotype's close relationship to the most recent common ancestor Nurgaci

Placed the family within Haplogroup C3b2b1*-M401(xF5483)

Abstract

House of Aisin Gioro is the imperial family of the last dynasty in Chinese history - Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911). Aisin Gioro family originated from Jurchen tribes and developed the Manchu people before they conquered China. By investigating the Y chromosomal short tandem repeats (STRs) of 7 modern male individuals who claim belonging to Aisin Gioro family (in which 3 have full records of pedigree), we found that 3 of them (in which 2 keep full pedigree, whose most recent common ancestor is Nurgaci) shows very close relationship (1 - 2 steps of difference in 17 STR) and the haplotype is rare. We therefore conclude that this haplotype is the Y chromosome of the House of Aisin Gioro. Further tests of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) indicates that they belong to Haplogroup C3b2b1*-M401(xF5483), although their Y-STR results are distant to the "star cluster", which also belongs to the same haplogroup. This study forms the base for the pedigree research of the imperial family of Qing Dynasty by means of genetics.