The Earliest Modern Humans in Siberia: Who were They, Who were Their Ancestors, and Who are Their Descendants?

谁是最早的西伯利亚人？这些人在多大程度上与第一批美国人有联系？传统上，考古学家和遗传学家一直认为，美洲是在最后一次冰川高峰期(LGM)之前或之后被西伯利亚人通过白令大陆桥迁徙而殖民的；然而，这仍然是一个假设，因为考古研究没有提供克洛维斯的明确祖先，克洛维斯被广泛认为是北美最早的考古文化(约13,000年前)。同样，现代DNA研究只能预测过去的遗传关系，留给科学家们对现代人的假设--S的起源。在国家科学基金会的支持下，Kelly Graf博士和她的同事们将前往俄罗斯圣彼得堡，从西伯利亚已知的最早的现代人类遗骸中收集古代DNA样本：Mal‘ta遗骸来自末次盛会之前的背景，Afontova Gora-2遗骸来自后LGM的背景。这些样本中的古代DNA将被捕获并进行分析，试图为这些个体重建完整的线粒体(MT)DNA基因组。这项研究的结果有可能回答现代人类扩散研究中的一些令人信服的问题：谁是最早的现代西伯利亚人，他们与第一批美国人有多大程度的联系，他们与现存的亚洲人和美国人有什么关系？该项目还将加强两个研究早期人类研究的中心之间的国际关系，这两个中心是德克萨斯农工大学第一美国人研究中心和丹麦哥本哈根大学古代遗传学中心。此外，该项目将为初级女科学家提供宝贵的研究经验，这是现代人类扩散研究中代表性不足的群体。

Who were the earliest Siberians and to what extent were these people related to the first Americans? Traditionally, archaeologists and geneticists have held the view that the Americas were colonized either before or after the last glacial maximum (LGM) by Siberians that migrated over the Bering Land Bridge; however, this remains an hypothesis because archaeological research has not provided a clear progenitor in Siberia or Beringia for Clovis, widely accepted as the earliest archaeological culture in North America (ca. 13,000 years ago). Likewise, modern DNA studies can only predict past genetic relationships, leaving scientists to hypothesize about modern people?s origins. With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Kelly Graf and her colleagues will travel to St. Petersburg, Russia to collect ancient DNA samples from the earliest known modern human remains in Siberia: Mal'ta remains from a pre-LGM context and Afontova Gora-2 remains from a post-LGM context. Ancient DNA from these samples will be captured and analyzed in an attempt to reconstruct the complete mitochondrial (mt) DNA genomes for these individuals. Results from this study have the potential to answer some compelling questions in modern human dispersal research: who were the earliest modern Siberians, to what extent were they related to the first Americans, and how do they relate to living Asian and American populations? The project will also enhance the international relationship between two centers that study early human research, the Center for the Study of the First Americans, Texas A&M University, and the Center for Ancient Genetics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. In addition, the project will provide a valuable research experience for a junior female scientist, an underrepresented group in modern human dispersal research.