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

这个项目将结合基因组、历史、考古和语言数据，以促进我们对欧亚大陆农业、文化和人口扩张方面的现代人类人口历史的理解。该项目将产生有关格鲁吉亚人口的新数据，供科学研究人员和公众使用，从而扩大人类学、遗传学和人类历史的集体知识。该项目将加强与格鲁吉亚学者的实质性国际研究合作，为本科生和研究生提供培训机会，为生物人类学和人口遗传学课程的课程内容做出贡献，并通过在美国和格鲁吉亚的出版物和讲座促进科学成果的公开传播。研究结果还将由国际研究团队与参与者分享。在这项与伊万·贾瓦基什维利历史和民族学研究所和第比利斯国立医科大学学者合作开展的跨学科研究中，研究人员将对现代格鲁吉亚人口的基因组多样性进行调查，这将揭示关于人类系统地理、性别偏见对遗传多样性的贡献、混杂和迁徙模式以及欧亚大陆现代人类住区的新细节。通过在该地区的实地考察，调查人员将从居住在那里的约1250人那里获得家谱数据和DNA样本。对于这些新收集的样本，以及之前从Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti地区收集的~700个样本，他们将分析mtDNA、Y染色体和常染色体变异，包括通过全基因组测序。这些数据将结合考古学、民族学和语言学证据进行分析。利用这一办法，将探讨若干问题，包括：(A)现代人对高加索的旧石器时代定居点；(B)格鲁吉亚人口中尼安德特人的混合的性质和程度；(C)当地高加索人口对欧亚人口遗传影响的程度；(D)新石器时代农业传播到高加索的生物和文化影响；(E)过去一万年安纳托利亚人和格鲁吉亚人之间的互动。该项目将产生目前高加索人口可用的一些最高分辨率的线粒体DNA、Y染色体和常染色体数据。最后，这些对当代高加索人口的研究将为未来对该地区不同地点和时间背景下的过去人类人口进行古代DNA分析奠定基础，这些分析将为高加索地区本身的遗传变异提供更清晰的历时视角。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.