Abstract: There are about 20000 individuals speaking a special dialect of Chadong living in Northeastern Guangxi. The origin of the population has been a controversial research subject. In order to study the paternal origin of Chadong people, this research aims to investigate the genetic structure of Y chromosome by studying Y-STR and Y-SNP from 21 male Chadong individuals (unrelated) in Lingui County and by comparing the data of Chadong people with those of the surrounding populations. The multiplex detection of 17 Y-STR loci revealed a highly polymorphic genetic distribution, showing powerful potential for the loci to be used for population genetics and forensic research. High frequencies of haplogroup O2*-P31 and O2a1*-M95 suggested that Chadong people have prominent Daic genetic background while N-J tree and principal component analysis indicated that Chadong people are closer to Mulam than to Maonan and Han peoples. These results provide genetic evidence for the origin of Chadong people.

Key words: Chadong people; Y-STR; Y-SNP; Genetic structure; Paternal origin