Investigating modern human population history and dynamics: A genomic analysis of Georgian populations of the South Caucasus

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This project will combine genomic, historical, archaeological and linguistic data to advance our understanding of modern human population history with respect to the expansion of agriculture, cultures, and populations in Eurasia. The project will generate new data about Georgian populations that can be utilized by scientific researchers and the general public, thereby expanding the collective knowledge of anthropology, genetics and human history. The project will strengthen substantive international research collaborations with Georgian scholars, provide training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, contribute to course content for biological anthropology and population genetics courses, and promote public dissemination of the scientific results through publications and lectures in both the United States and Georgia. The results of the study will also be shared with participants by the international research team. In this interdisciplinary study, developed in collaboration with scholars from the Ivane Javakhishvili Institute of History and Ethnology and the Tbilisi State Medical University, the investigators will conduct a survey of genomic diversity in modern Georgian populations, which will reveal new details about human phylogeography, sex-biased contributions to genetic diversity, patterns of admixture and migration, and the modern human settlement of Eurasia. Through fieldwork in the region, the investigators will obtain genealogical data and DNA samples from ~1250 individuals living there. For these newly collected samples, and for ~700 previously collected samples from the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region, they will analyze mtDNA, Y-chromosome and autosomal variation, including through whole genome sequencing. These data will be analyzed in conjunction with archeological, ethnological and linguistic evidence. Using this approach, a number of questions will be addressed, including: (a) the Paleolithic settlement of the Caucasus by modern humans; (b) the nature and extent of Neanderthal admixture in Georgian populations; (c) the degree to which local Caucasus populations have genetically influenced Eurasian populations; (d) the biological and cultural impact of the Neolithic spread of agriculture into the Caucasus; and (e) the interactions between Anatolian and Georgian populations over the past ten millennia. This project will generate some of the highest resolution mtDNA, Y-chromosome and autosomal data currently available for Caucasus populations. Finally, these studies of contemporary Caucasus populations will lay the foundation for future ancient DNA analyses of past human populations from various locations and temporal contexts within the region, ones that will provide a clearer diachronic perspective on genetic variation in the Caucasus itself.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.