Science 326, 1541–1545 (2009)

Humans migrated from Africa into Asia, along its southern coast and then down into Indonesia. But whether this wave also accounted for east Asian populations or was supplemented by one or more later migratory waves along a northern route has been the subject of debate.

The HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Consortium reports an analysis of nearly 55,000 variations in genes from nearly 2,000 people that supports the single-wave theory. The analysis finds a high degree of overlap between the genomes of all southeast Asians and east Asians, lesser genetic similarity with caucasian populations, and a decreasing genetic diversity from southern to northern China, suggesting that humans entered Asia in a single primary migratory wave.