The Genetic History of the Aleut People

阿留申人的遗传史

• 批准号: 1849338
• 负责人: Jennifer Raff
• 金额: $ 45万
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-03-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1849338&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Genetic; History; Aleut; People

In recent years, ancient DNA research has transformed our understanding of human history. In the Americas, ancient genomes have revealed new and surprising details, such as the presence of previously unknown populations, previously unsuspected relationships between groups, and new estimates of dates for past events in human history. Although recent studies have investigated the origins and history of different Native American groups, few have focused on the indigenous peoples of the Aleutian Islands, a population that may prove central to our understanding of human dispersals in the western hemisphere. The analysis of genomes from ancient and contemporary Aleuts will allow us to better understand the origins of these peoples, how they adapted to a challenging environment, and how European contact and recent population events have affected their genetic diversity. This research is supported by Aleut political and cultural leaders, who are interested in using genetic approaches to better understand their people's history. Results from this project will be used in education materials for the participating communities, as well as in initiatives designed to train Native American students in genetics. The Americas were the last continents to become inhabited by humans, but it has recently become clear that the history of this process was far more complicated than originally understood based on archaeology alone. For example, current archaeological evidence suggests that the Aleutian Islands were peopled approximately 9,000 years ago in a series of population movements from the Alaska Peninsula westward, with groups inhabiting the western islands by about 3,000 years ago. A recently published analysis of genomic-scale data from ancient and contemporary peoples of the Arctic, which includes data from a few ancient individuals from the Eastern Aleutian islands, indicates that the Aleutian gene pool dates to approximately 5,000 years ago, leaving a 4,000 year discrepancy between archaeological and genetic records. One hypothesis to resolve the discrepancy between the genetic and archaeological dates holds that the earliest ancestors of Native Americans - who lived in Beringia approximately 20,000 years ago - may have moved southward to the Alaska Peninsula, eventually peopling the present-day central and western islands. The investigators will test this hypothesis and uncover additional details of the history of the peopling of the Aleutian Islands through the analysis of complete genomes from ancient and contemporary Aleuts. They will also assess the demographic effects of European contact beginning in the 18th century on Aleut populations, and characterize the genetic adaptations of ancient and contemporary Aleuts to the challenging environmental conditions present in the archipelago over time. This research was developed in a partnership between Aleut political and cultural leadership and the researchers at the University of Kansas, which is the result of a decades-long collaboration. This project is jointly funded by the Biological Anthropology Programs, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Arctic Social Science Program at the National Science Foundation.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.

近年来，古代DNA研究改变了我们对人类历史的理解。在美洲，古代基因组揭示了新的和令人惊讶的细节，例如以前不为人知的人群的存在，以前不被怀疑的群体之间的关系，以及对人类历史上过去事件的日期的新估计。尽管最近的研究调查了不同美洲土著群体的起源和历史，但很少有人关注阿留申群岛的土著人民，这一人口可能对我们了解人类在西半球的分散至关重要。对古代和当代阿留申人基因组的分析将使我们更好地了解这些民族的起源，他们如何适应充满挑战的环境，以及欧洲人的接触和最近的人口事件如何影响他们的遗传多样性。这项研究得到了阿留申政治和文化领袖的支持，他们对利用基因方法更好地了解他们民族的历史很感兴趣。该项目的成果将用于参与社区的教育材料，以及旨在培训美洲土著学生遗传学的倡议。美洲是最后一个有人类居住的大陆，但最近已经清楚，这个过程的历史远比最初仅根据考古学所理解的要复杂得多。例如，目前的考古证据表明，大约9000年前，在阿拉斯加半岛向西的一系列人口迁移中，阿留申群岛有人居住，大约3000年前，一些群体居住在西部岛屿上。最近发表的一项对北极古代人和现代人基因组规模数据的分析，其中包括来自东阿留申群岛的一些古代人的数据，表明阿留申基因库可以追溯到大约5000年前，在考古和基因记录之间留下了4000年的差异。解决基因和考古日期之间差异的一种假设认为，大约2万年前居住在白令陆桥的美洲原住民最早的祖先可能向南迁移到阿拉斯加半岛，最终居住在今天的中部和西部岛屿上。研究人员将检验这一假设，并通过分析古代和当代阿留申人的完整基因组，揭示阿留申群岛居民历史的更多细节。他们还将评估从18世纪开始与欧洲人的接触对阿留申人的人口影响，并描述古代和当代阿留申人对群岛上长期存在的具有挑战性的环境条件的遗传适应。这项研究是由阿留申政治和文化领导层与堪萨斯大学的研究人员合作开展的，这是数十年合作的结果。本项目由美国国家科学基金会生物人类学项目、刺激竞争性研究的既定项目（EPSCoR）和北极社会科学项目共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。