Collaborative Research: Anthropological-Genomic Effects of European Colonization on Native North Americans

欧洲殖民者改变了北美土著人口的自然、社会和文化环境。该项目通过一种结合了基因组分析、计算统计方法和与现有数据库整合的方法，重点研究了欧洲殖民对北美土著人的影响。基因组和统计分析将与历史和系谱信息相结合，以提供对美洲原住民进化史和殖民过程的实质性看法。将北美各个地理区域内的多个社区包括在内，将为审查每个区域内欧洲殖民史的共同和独特方面提供基础。这项研究考察了每个群体中非土著祖先的数量，以及为美洲原住民社区贡献非土著祖先的事件的性质。此外，这项研究还检查了混合驱动的选择，即基因组中具有非美洲原住民祖先特征的基因组签名在美洲原住民中频率较高的区域。这个项目为理解欧洲殖民在世界其他地区的基因组影响提供了一个模型。这个项目致力于在美洲原住民社区和科学研究人员之间建立互惠互利和相互信任的关系。这项工作的核心是为美洲原住民学生举办的暑期研讨会，讨论基因组研究。此外，两名分子人类学学生和一名博士后研究员将接受最新基因组分析方面的培训。这个项目扩大了研究人员之间的合作，他们有兴趣研究美洲原住民历史中重要的近期历史事件。

European colonists changed the natural, social and cultural environments of indigenous populations in North America. This project focuses on the effects of European colonization on Native North Americans through an approach that incorporates genomic analysis, computational-statistic methods, and integration with existing databases. The genomic and statistical analysis will be combined with historical and genealogical information to provide a substantive view of Native American evolutionary history and the colonization process. Inclusion of multiple communities from within individual geographic regions across North America will provide a basis for examining shared and distinctive aspects of the history of European colonization within each of these regions. The study examines the amount of non-Native ancestry in each group and the properties of events that contributed the non-Native ancestry to Native American communities. In addition, the study examines admixture-driven selection, that is, regions of the genome in which genomic signatures characteristic of non-Native American ancestry have an elevated frequency in Native Americans. This project serves as a model for understanding the genomic effects of European colonization in other parts of the world. This project works to create mutually beneficial and trusting relationships between Native American communities and scientific researchers. Central to this effort is a summer workshop for Native American students to discuss genomic research. In addition, two molecular anthropology students and one postdoctoral fellow will be trained in the latest genomic analyses. This project expands collaborations of researchers with an interest in studying important recent historical events in Native American history.