IBSS-L: Epigenomic Effects of Colonization on Indigenous Populations

这个跨学科的研究项目将分析欧洲殖民化导致的社会环境变化如何导致心理压力，以及土著人民在同化西方生活方式时基因组和基因表达的可能变化。这些生物变化（也称为表观基因组学）可能与其他社区的人们也经历过创伤相似。 该项目还将调查回归祖先知情的社会传统是否会改变土著人民在适应西方化环境时的生物变化。 该项目将增进人们对全球历史事件（如欧洲殖民化）如何产生今天仍可能看到的持久生物影响的了解。 项目成果将使人们深入了解社会压力对土著人民的生物学的影响，并将澄清潜在的干预点，以减少这一人口的健康差距。 该项目还将支持一个对土著学生和社区成员进行基因组学理论和分析培训的方案，同时还将支持美洲土著人基因组学暑期实习方案，该方案将在阿拉斯加的基奈半岛学院举办一个专门讲习班，提供分子生物学、生物信息学和其他基因组学相关领域的实践经验。 这些活动将有助于加强项目目标，以增加美洲原住民在涉及科学的职业生涯中担任领导者的人数。该项目将研究心理学和相关领域关于心理障碍中表现出的创伤的生物学基础的理论在人类学背景下如何适用于美洲原住民，这些美洲原住民由于欧洲殖民和同化而经历了社会压力。西方化的生活 研究者将在研究中使用多种方法。 将采用比较基因组方法，评估作为本研究一部分收集的关于土著人民的数据与关于经历过创伤的其他人的类似数据之间的趋同点和差异点。 将与来自与土著群体相同地理位置的非土著对照组进行比较。 将使用相关统计模型进行和分析涉及社会生活方式和压力的文化调查，并将分离和分析生活在欧洲接触时期的祖先土著人民骨骼遗骸的DNA和基因组。 该项目通过NSF跨学科行为和社会科学研究（IBSS）竞赛获得支持。

This interdisciplinary research project will analyze how changes in the social environment as a result of European colonization have contributed to psychological stress and to possible changes in the genomes and the expression of genes of indigenous peoples when assimilating to Westernized lifestyles. These biological changes (also known as epigenomics) may be similar to other communities whose people have also experienced trauma. The project also will investigate whether a return to ancestrally-informed social traditions modifies the biological changes of indigenous peoples when adjusting to a Westernized environment. The project will enhance understanding of how global historic events, such as European colonization, produce persistent biological effects that may still be seen today. Project results will provide insight into the impact of social stress on biology among indigenous peoples and will clarify potential points of intervention to reduce health disparities in this population. This project also will support a program for the training of indigenous students and community members in genomics theory and analyses, in conjunction with the Summer Internship for Native Americans in Genomics program, which will conduct a specialized workshop at Kenai Peninsula College in Alaska to provide hands-on experience in molecular biology, bioinformatics, and other genomics related fields. These activities will help bolster program goals to increase the number of Native Americans serving as leaders in careers involving the sciences.The project will examine how well theories developed in psychology and related fields regarding the biological underpinnings of trauma manifested in psychological disorders applies in an anthropological context to Native Americans who have experienced social stress as a result of European colonization and assimilation to a Westernized life. The investigators will use multiple approaches in the study. Comparative genomic approaches will be used to assess points of convergence and divergence between the data regarding indigenous peoples gathered as part of this study and similar data about others who have experienced trauma. A comparison will be made with a non-indigenous control group from the same geographic location as the indigenous groups. Culturally informed surveys dealing with social lifestyles and stress will be conducted and analyzed using relevant statistical models, and DNA and genomes from skeletal remains of ancestral indigenous peoples who lived during the time of European contact will be isolated and analyzed. This project is supported through the NSF Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (IBSS) competition.