CAREER: Evolutionary and Adaptive Histories of Human Populations: Integration of Ancient DNA Research and Interactive Education

这个职业项目将考察美洲人口的进化史。来自古代和活着的个体的DNA将被整合在一起，以表征欧洲接触之前和之后的进化过程和种群动态，包括适应不断变化的环境和病原体、农业的采用以及从小群体生活到相互联系的大城市的转变所产生的生物学和社会后果。为了全面了解当地人口历史，该项目将利用整个美洲人类文明的古老DNA，并结合最先进的计算方法和考古背景。该项目还将支持几个综合教育目标。调查人员将建立一个密集的暑期研究项目，将来自土著社区的参与者与当地本科生聚集在一起。合作者和学生不仅将为具体的研究目标做出贡献，还将帮助开发一个关于美洲古代血统的互动公共网站。该资源不仅将揭示古代社会、人口和进化史，还将允许Latinx用户探索自己的祖先。通过利用来自古代和现代个体的种群水平的全基因组，该项目将使用比较统计和实证方法来揭示新的基因组特征，这些特征可能是随着时间的推移而进化的适应性表型的基础，发现区域和大陆层面的古代迁徙，并调查欧洲人接触对土著群体的进化影响。此外，这项研究产生的深度覆盖整个基因组将为美洲人民提供一个参考小组，它将揭示每个地区特有的稀有等位基因和基因组特征。这些发现将被置于更复杂的人口统计框架中，以提供这些进化适应的更丰富的特征，同时阐明因疾病和殖民而复杂化的细微差别的人口历史。这将有助于建立古代DNA的更大用途和力量，以表征进化和文化事件的重要方面，否则可能仍然难以处理，从而深化遗传学与人类学理论的结合。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This CAREER project will examine the evolutionary history of populations in the Americas. DNA from both ancient and living individuals will be integrated to characterize evolutionary processes and population dynamics before and after European contact, including the biological and social consequences of adapting to changing environments and pathogens, the adoption of agriculture, and the shift from living in small groups to large interconnected cities. To build a comprehensive picture of local population histories, the project will utilize ancient DNA from human civilizations throughout the Americas in combination with state-of-the-art computational methods and archaeological contexts. The project will also support several integrated educational goals. The investigator will establish an intensive summer research program, bringing together participants from indigenous communities with local undergraduates. Collaborators and students will not only contribute to the specific research aims but also help develop an interactive public website about the ancient lineages of the Americas. This resource will not only reveal ancient social, demographic, and evolutionary histories but also allow LatinX users to explore their own ancestry.By utilizing population-level whole genomes from both ancient and modern individuals, this project will use comparative statistical and empirical methods to reveal novel genomic features that putatively underlay adaptive phenotypes as they evolved through time, discover ancient migrations on both regional and continental levels, and investigate the evolutionary impact of European contact on indigenous populations. Furthermore, the deep coverage whole genomes generated from this study will provide a reference panel for the people of the Americas, which will uncover rare alleles and genomic features unique to each region. These findings will be placed into a more complex demographic framework to provide a richer characterization of these evolutionary adaptations, while elucidating nuanced demographic histories complicated by disease and colonization. This will serve to establish the greater use and power of ancient DNA to characterize important aspects of evolutionary and cultural events, which might otherwise remain intractable, and thereby deepen the integration of genetics with anthropological theory.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.