Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating adaptation in ancient and contemporary Indigenous peoples

由于自然选择、栖息地建设和文化创新等生物和社会机制的影响，人类在世界各地多样化和极端的环境中茁壮成长。虽然许多研究已经调查了适应极端环境的遗传基础，但关于社会和文化进程如何相互作用以促进人类生存和繁荣，还有很多有待发现。这个博士论文项目结合了遗传、考古、民族历史和民族志分析来研究适应自然和社会环境压力的时间。该项目的多方面方法将促进对人类适应的理解，并扩大目前有限的美洲土著人民在人类变异基因组研究中的代表性。该项目为研究生和本科生研究人员提供人类学基因组方法方面的指导和培训，并为社区和公共科学推广工作做出贡献。该项目采用生物文化理论框架，整合来自考古学、民族历史、民族志和基因组学的证据，对人类在极端环境下的生存和繁荣形成更完整、更细致的图景。该研究利用下一代基因组测序技术、同位素和放射性碳分析、自然选择的统计测试和种群历史重建来评估遗传变异，并确定在大约6000年的时间跨度中古代和当代土著人民的基因选择。这些数据将用于阐明在极端环境中可能存在的类似适应，在极端环境中，低温和有限的饮食可能对人类种群产生类似的影响。此外，本研究将调查欧洲接触后的适应性，当时新疾病的引入可能起到了强大的选择压力。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。

Humans thrive in diverse and extreme environments around the world thanks to biological and social mechanisms including adaptation by natural selection, habitat construction, and cultural innovations. While many studies have investigated the genetic basis of adaptation to extreme environments, there is much to be discovered about how social and cultural processes also interact to contribute to human survival and flourishing. This doctoral dissertation project combines genetic, archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic analyses to investigate adaptation through time to both natural and social environmental pressures. The multifaceted approach of this project will advance the understanding of human adaptation as well as expand the currently limited representation of Indigenous peoples of the Americas in genomic studies of human variation. The project provides mentorship and training in anthropological genomic methods to graduate and undergraduate researchers and contributes to community and public science outreach efforts.This project employs biocultural theoretical frameworks to integrate evidence from archaeology, ethnohistory, ethnography, and genomics and develop a more complete and nuanced picture of human survival and flourishing in extreme environments. The study employs next-generation genome sequencing technology, isotope and radiocarbon analyses, statistical tests for natural selection, and reconstructions of population history to assess genetic variation and identify genes under selection in ancient and contemporary Indigenous peoples over a timespan of about six thousand years. These data will be used to shed light on possible parallel adaptation in extreme environments where cold temperatures and limited diets may have had similar effects on human populations. Additionally, this study will investigate adaptation after European contact when the introduction of novel diseases may have acted as a strong selective pressure.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.