Genomic Structure of Founder Events in the 17th Century Chesapeake

该奖项是美国国家科学基金会社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在康涅狄格大学Deborah Bolnick博士的赞助下，该博士后奖学金支持一位早期职业科学家评估17世纪切萨皮克殖民地（马里兰州，弗吉尼亚州和特拉华州）殖民期间创始人效应如何形成基因组变异模式。该项目旨在(1)表征从詹姆斯敦考古遗址中恢复的考古个体的基因组特征，将其基因组变异与(2)其他17世纪切萨皮克考古墓葬的基因组变异进行比较，以及(3)与其他地区的当代后代种群进行比较，以评估最初的创始人事件是否以及何时对该地区的当代基因组变异做出了贡献。本研究采用社区参与框架，与詹姆斯敦再发现项目合作举办的连续外展计划和研讨会与社区利益相关者分享研究进展和结果。当新种群建立时，创始人携带祖先源种群中存在的总遗传变异的随机子集，这可以极大地影响后代种群的基因组变异。这对于理解多重移民浪潮中哪一波对当代人口多样性贡献最大尤为重要。当代和考古人群之间的基因组比较使我们能够从一个新的角度重新审视这个问题。在这个项目中，我们将对弗吉尼亚州詹姆斯敦第一批（公元1607年）定居者的考古个体的基因组进行测序。他们的基因组将与来自17世纪切萨皮克地区三个遗址的考古基因组以及来自其他地区的当代人口进行比较。通过这种方法，我们将直接评估考古遗址的人口结构，并确定与当代人口的相似程度。由于17世纪切萨皮克移民人口的快速流动特征，我们预计，17世纪切萨皮克后期的人口流动对当代人口多样性的贡献大于早期的定居点。通过分析整个17世纪考古样本的时间序列的基因组，从弗吉尼亚州詹姆斯敦的第一批定居者开始，我们可以重建17世纪切萨皮克的基因组人口结构，以确定殖民背景下的创始人事件如何以及何时开始促进该地区今天的人口多样性。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。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Deborah Bolnick at the University of Connecticut, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist assessing how founder effects shaped patterns of genomic variation during the 17th century colonization of the Chesapeake colonies (Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware). This project seeks to (1) characterize the genomes of archaeological individuals recovered from the Jamestown archaeological site, compare their genomic variation with (2) additional 17th century Chesapeake archaeological burials, and (3) with contemporary descendant populations in the other regions to assess if and when initial founder events contributed to contemporary genomic variation in the region. This research utilizes a community engaged framework, in which successive outreach programs and workshops held in collaboration with the Jamestown Rediscovery Project share progress and the results of the research with community stakeholders.When new populations are founded, the founders carry a random subset of the total genetic variation present in the ancestral source population, which can greatly influence genomic variation in descendant populations. This is especially relevant for understanding which of the multiple waves of migration have contributed most to contemporary population diversity. Genomic comparisons between contemporary and archaeological populations allows us to revisit this issue from a new perspective. In this project, we will sequence the genomes of archaeological individuals belonging to the first (A.D. 1607) settlers in Jamestown, Virginia. Their genomes will be compared with additional archaeological genomes from three sites in 17th century Chesapeake region as well as contemporary populations from other regions. Through this approach, we will directly assess population structure across archaeological sites, and determine the degree of similarity with contemporary populations. Due to rapid population turnover characteristic of 17th century Chesapeake settler populations, we expect that later population movements in the 17th century Chesapeake contributed more to contemporary population diversity than did earlier settlements. By analyzing the genomes of a time series of archaeological samples throughout the 17th century, beginning with the first settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, we can reconstruct the genomic population structure through 17th century Chesapeake to determine how and when founder events in colonization contexts began to contribute to present-day population diversity in the region.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.