Y Chromosome Variation in Northern Island Melanesia

This chapter reports the paternally inherited Y chromosome variation, following the same format as for the mitochondrial DNA. Using an expanded battery of regionally informative markers, this chapter greatly expands the known Y chromosome variation in the Southwest Pacific, and shows that the paternally inherited variation in the region is generally comparable to the maternally inherited mtDNA pattern of variation - contrary to hypotheses that had been put forward in the last decade. Again, there is a constellation of variants that seems to have arisen tens of thousands of years ago within Near Oceania and specifically in Northern Island Melanesia. There is an identifiable footprint of recent Island Southeast Asian influence in the NRY data, but it is much fainter than in the mtDNA "Polynesian Motif".