Biomedical and genetic characteristics of the Ryukyuans: demographic history, diseases and physical and physiological traits

Abstract

Context: The Ryukyu Islands stretch across a southwestern area of the Japanese Archipelago. Because of their unique geographical and historical backgrounds, Ryukyuans have their own genetic and phenotypic characteristics, which have been disclosed in previous anthropological and biomedical studies.

Objective: The history, peopling and biomedical and genetic characteristics of Ryukyuans are reviewed and future research directions are discussed.

Conclusion: Morphological and genetic studies have suggested the complex demographic history of Ryukyuans and their relationships with other Asian populations. Knowledge of population formation processes is important to understand the distribution of pathogens. In viral infectious diseases, some strains that may be associated with disease symptoms are specific to Ryukyuans. Dramatic changes in diet have played an important role among Ryukyuans in terms of increases in lifestyle-related diseases and mortality risks. To achieve a better understanding of pathogenic disease factors, further integration of findings regarding the genetic and biomedical characteristics of the Ryukyuans is needed.

Keywords:

• Ryukyu Islands
• Okinawa
• disease
• biomedical characteristics
• genetic characteristics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (to KK, 18K14805; https://www.jsps.go.jp/j-grantsinaid/) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the ‘Spatiotemporal Genomics Project’ promoted by the University of the Ryukyus, and a Grant for the Promotion of Advanced Medicine from Okinawa Prefecture.