Due to its complex history of migrations and colonization of African, European, and Asian people, the Tunisian territory is an ideal area to study the effects of cultural change on the genetic structure of human populations. This study investigated genetic variation in the mitochondrial DNA of Tunisian populations to detect the possible impact of recent historical events on their gene pool. Two Arab and three Berber communities were analyzed using a comparison data set of 45 other populations comprising African, Arabian, Asian, European, and Near Eastern groups. Results were compared with those produced using a large panel of autosomal single-nucleotide polymorphisms. We observed a slight but important difference between the populations that inhabit the southern and central-northern areas of Tunisia. Furthermore, robust signatures of genetic isolation were detected in two Berber populations (Nouvelle Zraoua and Tamezret) and in the R'Baya people, a seminomadic Arab group. This investigation suggests that the genetic structure of investigated southern Tunisian populations retains signatures of historical events that occurred between the 7th and 17th centuries, particularly the trans-Saharan slave trade and the emigration of Berbers in remote areas of the south during the Arab conquest.

The Austroasiatic (AA) languages comprise a large language family in mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) and South Asia. Theoretical, methodological, and material constraints have limited research on the origin and dispersal of AA-speaking populations within historical-comparative linguistics. With the deepening of archaeological and genetic studies, interdisciplinary collaboration has become key to solving this problem. We review the latest hypotheses in linguistics, archaeology, and molecular anthropology and propose insights on the origin and dispersal of AA languages. The ancestors of the AA-speaking populations were suggested to be rice farmers living in the Neolithic Age in southern China. Between 3,000 and 4,500 BP, some of these ancestors who spoke Proto-AA migrated from southern China to northern Vietnam, together with shouldered stone tools and domesticated rice. They mixed with local hunter-gatherers and expanded to the south of MSEA, giving rise to the Mon-Khmer, Aslian, and Nicobarese populations. They also spread to the northeast of India to form the Munda-speaking populations. Another group arrived near Dian Lake in Yunnan about 2,500 BP, where they created the Bronze Drum culture with the Proto-Tai-Kadai (TK)–speaking populations and later spread eastward to northern Vietnam via Guangxi. Finally, the Proto-AA–speaking people who remained in southern China mixed with the Proto-TK–speaking groups from Fujian and Guangdong, leading to a language shift, which we hypothesize was one of the main reasons for the “disappearance” of AA in southern China.

Understanding gene variations in people living under extreme conditions has the potential of curing diseases caused by exposure to heat, cold, fatty diets, hypoxia, and pathogens. One candidate gene associated with heat resistance is ACE1, encoding angiotensin-converting enzyme 1. Associations have also been made between cold resistance or fatty diets and polymorphisms of several genes, including ACTN3, encoding alpha-actinin-3, and CPTIA, encoding carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A. A prominent role in resistance to hypoxia has been recognized for polymorphisms of EPAS1, encoding endothelial PAS domain protein 1, and EGLN1, encoding Egl-9 family hypoxia inducible factor 1. Variants conferring human resistance to pathogens include HBB, encoding hemoglobin subunit beta, and ACE2, encoding angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. Genetic knowledge concerning such diseases as malaria and conditions such as hypoxia should continue to promote advances in gene therapy.

Many scholars have conducted research on the growth patterns of children's skulls in terms of skull size, head circumference, cranial cavity volume, and so forth. This study compared and analyzed 20 skull measurement indexes of different ages from skulls of 38 children (aged 2–15 years) and 87 adult females (20–40 years) at the Zaghunluq cemetery in Xinjiang, China, to determine how the size of ancient children's skulls changed with age. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant differences between the six age groups (2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–11, 12–15 years, and adults [20–40 years]) in terms of metrical cranial traits, cranial area, and cranial cavity volume. Results indicate that the skull kept growing from ages 3–5, 12–15, and adults, implying that the skull sizes of ancient children in Xinjiang continued to increase with age. In addition, the study revealed that children aged 12–15 had skulls that were significantly smaller than those of adults. This finding showed that the skulls of ancient children in Xinjiang were not fully developed at the age of 15. Notably, differences existed between age groups in both developmental traits of the cranium and the rates at which the skull changed.