The Genetic History of the Aleut People

近年来，古代DNA研究改变了我们对人类历史的理解。在美洲，古老的基因组揭示了新的令人惊讶的细节，例如以前未知的种群的存在，先前未被怀疑的群体之间的关系，以及对人类历史上过去事件的新的日期估计。尽管最近的研究调查了不同的美洲原住民群体的起源和历史，但很少有人把重点放在阿留申群岛的土著民族上，这一群体可能被证明是我们理解人类在西半球扩散的核心。对古代和当代阿留申人的基因组分析将使我们更好地了解这些民族的起源，他们如何适应具有挑战性的环境，以及欧洲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，他们对使用基因方法更好地了解本国人民的历史感兴趣。该项目的结果将用于参与社区的教育材料，以及旨在培训美洲原住民学生遗传学的倡议。美洲是最后几个人类居住的大陆，但最近清楚的是，这一过程的历史比最初仅基于考古学的理解要复杂得多。例如，目前的考古证据表明，阿留申群岛在大约9000年前从阿拉斯加半岛向西的一系列人口迁徙中居住，大约3000年前就有群体居住在西部岛屿上。最近发表的一项对北极古代和当代民族的基因组规模数据的分析表明，阿留申基因库可以追溯到大约5000年前，考古记录和基因记录之间存在4000年的差异。分析数据包括来自东阿留申群岛的几个古代个体的数据。解决基因年代和考古年代之间差异的一种假设是，美洲原住民的最早祖先--大约2万年前生活在贝林贾--可能已经向南迁徙到阿拉斯加半岛，最终居住在今天的中西部岛屿上。研究人员将验证这一假设，并通过分析古代和当代阿留申人的完整基因组，揭示阿留申群岛人类历史的更多细节。他们还将评估18世纪开始的欧洲接触对阿留申人人口的人口影响，并描述古代和当代阿留申人随着时间的推移对群岛中具有挑战性的环境条件的遗传适应情况。这项研究是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发的，这是数十年合作的结果。该项目由生物人类学计划、既定的激励竞争性研究计划(EPSCoR)和国家科学基金会北极社会科学计划共同资助。该奖项反映了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。

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.