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. 2021 Jan 6;7(2):eabc4587.
doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abc4587. Print 2021 Jan.

Human population dynamics and Yersinia pestis in ancient northeast Asia

Gülşah Merve Kılınç  1   2 , Natalija Kashuba  3   4 , Dilek Koptekin  5 , Nora Bergfeldt  6   7 , Handan Melike Dönertaş  8 , Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela  3   7 , Dmitrij Shergin  9 , Grigorij Ivanov  10 , Dmitrii Kichigin  11 , Kjunnej Pestereva  12 , Denis Volkov  13 , Pavel Mandryka  14 , Artur Kharinskii  11 , Alexey Tishkin  15 , Evgenij Ineshin  9 , Evgeniy Kovychev  16 , Aleksandr Stepanov  17 , Love Dalén  6   7 , Torsten Günther  18 , Emrah Kırdök  7   19 , Mattias Jakobsson  18 , Mehmet Somel  20 , Maja Krzewińska  3   7 , Jan Storå  21 , Anders Götherström  1   7
Affiliations

Human population dynamics and Yersinia pestis in ancient northeast Asia

Gülşah Merve Kılınç et al. Sci Adv. .

Abstract

We present genome-wide data from 40 individuals dating to c.16,900 to 550 years ago in northeast Asia. We describe hitherto unknown gene flow and admixture events in the region, revealing a complex population history. While populations east of Lake Baikal remained relatively stable from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age, those from Yakutia and west of Lake Baikal witnessed major population transformations, from the Late Upper Paleolithic to the Neolithic, and during the Bronze Age, respectively. We further locate the Asian ancestors of Paleo-Inuits, using direct genetic evidence. Last, we report the most northeastern ancient occurrence of the plague-related bacterium, Yersinia pestis Our findings indicate the highly connected and dynamic nature of northeast Asia populations throughout the Holocene.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Geographical and chronological information concerning the ancient individuals.
(A) Geographical map showing the locations of the individuals sequenced in this study (orange, blue, and red). Genomes published elsewhere are shown as black (see table S2 for information about all published individuals used in comparative analysis). (B) Timeline showing the ages of the ancient individuals as calibrated years before the present.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. PCA and ADMIXTURE analysis.
(A) PCA calculated using a set of world populations. Ancient individuals were projected onto the inferred PC space (see table S2 for information about individuals). Arrows indicate the direction of population changes in time. Asterisk denotes being published in (16). (B) A subset of ADMIXTURE result for K = 14 clusters showing the ancestral composition of investigated ancient individuals.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Key f4-statistics summarizing the population transitions across the Lake Baikal area.
(A) f4(Yoruba, Trans-Baikal_8515_8380_BP; PopX, Yakutia_Lena_6850_6190_BP). (B) f4(Yoruba, Trans-Baikal_8345_3000_BP; PopX, Cis-Baikal_8980_8640_BP). (C) f4(Yoruba, Cis-Baikal_8980_8640_BP; PopX, Trans-Baikal_8345_3000_BP).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. Estimating the level of genetic diversity and population size changes in time.
(A) Heterozygosity estimates. (B) Amount of short RoH in the genomes of Lake Baikal and Yakutia individuals. Mb, megabase. (C) Effective population size change in time estimated using MSMC.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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