Paleo-Eskimo genetic legacy across North America

Pavel Flegontov; N. Ezgi Altınışık; Piya Changmai; Nadin Rohland; Swapan Mallick; Deborah A. Bolnick; Francesca Candilio; Olga Flegontova; Choongwon Jeong; Thomas K. Harper; Denise Keating; Douglas J. Kennett; Alexander M. Kim; Thiseas C. Lamnidis; Íñigo Olalde; Jennifer Raff; Robert A. Sattler; Pontus Skoglund; Edward J. Vajda; Sergey Vladimirovich Vasilyev; Elizaveta V. Veselovskaya; M. Geoffrey Hayes; Dennis H. O’Rourke; Ron Pinhasi; Johannes Krause; David Reich; Stephan Schiffels

doi:10.1101/203018

GeneticsbioRxivOct 13, 2017

Preprint

Paleo-Eskimo genetic legacy across North America

Pavel Flegontov iD, N. Ezgi Altınışık iD, Piya Changmai iD, Nadin Rohland iD, Swapan Mallick iD, Deborah A. Bolnick iD, Francesca Candilio iD, Olga Flegontova, Choongwon Jeong iD, Thomas K. Harper iD, Denise Keating iD, Douglas J. Kennett iD, Alexander M. Kim iD, Thiseas C. Lamnidis iD, Íñigo Olalde iD, Jennifer Raff iD, Robert A. Sattler, Pontus Skoglund iD, Edward J. Vajda iD, Sergey Vladimirovich Vasilyev iD, Elizaveta V. Veselovskaya iD, M. Geoffrey Hayes iD, Dennis H. O’Rourke iD, Ron Pinhasi iD, Johannes Krause iD, , Stephan Schiffels iD

Abstract

Paleo-Eskimos were the first people to settle vast regions of the American Arctic around 5,000 years ago, and were subsequently joined and largely displaced around 1,000 years ago by ancestors of the present-day Inuit and Yupik. The genetic relationship between Paleo-Eskimos and Native American populations remains uncertain. We analyze ancient and present-day genome-wide data from the Americas and Siberia, including new data from Alaskan Inupiat and West Siberian populations, and the first genome-wide DNA from ancient Aleutian Islanders, ancient northern Athabaskans, and a 4,250-year-old individual of the Chukotkan Ust'-Belaya culture. Employing new methods based on rare allele and haplotype sharing as well as established methods based on allele frequency correlations, we show that Paleo-Eskimo ancestry is widespread among populations who speak Na-Dene and Eskimo-Aleut languages. Using phylogenetic modelling with allele frequency correlations and rare variation, we present a comprehensive model for the complex peopling of North America.

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