A research reveals that millions of modern Asian men are descended from 11 powerful dynastic leaders including Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan who lived up to 4,000 years ago. The findings came to the light after geneticists from the University of Leicester examined Y chromosomes in more than 5,000 Asian men from 127 populations. Most Y chromosome types are very rare, but the team discovered 11 types that were relatively common across the sample and studied their distributions and histories.

Two common male lineages have been discovered and have been ascribed to one well-known historical figure, Genghis Khan and another less-known one, Giocangga. The Leicester team found genetic links through a chain of male ancestors to both Genghis Khan and Giocangga and nine other dynastic leaders who originated from Asia and dated back to between 2100 BC and 700 AD.

"The youngest lineages, originating in the last 1700 years, are found in pastoral nomadic populations, who were highly mobile horse-riders and could spread their Y chromosomes far and wide," said project leader professor Mark Jobling from the department of genetics. For these lineages to become so common, their powerful founders might be having many sons through many women and to pass their status as well as their Y chromosomes on to them. 

"The sons, in turn, could then have many sons, too. It's a kind of trans-generation amplification effect," he added. "Identifying the ancestors responsible for these lineages will be difficult or impossible, as it would rely on finding their remains, extracting and analysing ancient DNA. This has not yet been done for Genghis Khan, so the evidence remains circumstantial and pretty convincing," added Patricia Balaresque, first author of the study. The study was published in the European Journal of Human Genetics.

By Premji