Genomic Structure of Founder Events in the 17th Century Chesapeake

该奖项是NSF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的奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。NSF致力于促进来自科学界各部门的科学家，包括来自代表性不足的群体的科学家参与其研究计划和活动;博士后期间被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的重要水平。每个博士后研究员必须解决推进各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在康涅狄格大学的Deborah Bolnick博士的赞助下，这个博士后奖学金支持一位早期职业科学家评估创始人效应如何在世纪切萨皮克殖民地（马里兰州，弗吉尼亚州和特拉华州）的殖民期间塑造基因组变异模式。该项目旨在（1）描述从詹姆斯敦考古遗址发现的考古个体的基因组特征，将其基因组变异与（2）其他17世纪世纪切萨皮克考古墓葬进行比较，以及（3）与其他地区的当代后代人群进行比较，以评估最初的创始人事件是否以及何时促成了该地区当代的基因组变异。该研究采用社区参与的框架，在该框架中，与詹姆斯敦重新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其重要。当代和考古人群之间的基因组比较使我们能够从新的角度重新审视这个问题。在这个项目中，我们将对属于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世纪世纪切萨皮克地区三个地点的其他考古基因组以及来自其他地区的当代人群进行比较。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。由于快速的人口流动特性的17世纪切萨皮克定居者的人口，我们预计，后来的人口流动在17世纪切萨皮克贡献更多的当代人口多样性比早期定居点。通过分析整个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，我们可以重建世纪切萨皮克的基因组种群结构，以确定殖民背景下的创始人事件如何以及何时开始对现在的贡献-该奖项反映了NSF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.