Ancient DNA reveals five streams of migration into Micronesia and matrilocality in early Pacific seafarers

Yue-Chen Liu^{1

2}, Rosalind Hunter-Anderson³, Olivia Cheronet⁴, Joanne Eakin⁵, Frank Camacho⁶, Michael Pietrusewsky⁷, Nadin Rohland^{1

8}, Alexander Ioannidis^{9

10}, J Stephen Athens¹¹, Michele Toomay Douglas¹¹, Rona Michi Ikehara-Quebral¹¹, Rebecca Bernardos¹, Brendan J Culleton¹², Matthew Mah^{1

8

13}, Nicole Adamski^{1

13}, Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht^{1

13}, Kimberly Callan^{1

13}, Ann Marie Lawson^{1

13}, Kirsten Mandl⁴, Megan Michel^{1

13}, Jonas Oppenheimer^{1

13}, Kristin Stewardson^{1

13}, Fatma Zalzala^{1

13}, Kenneth Kidd¹⁴, Judith Kidd¹⁴, Theodore G Schurr¹⁵, Kathryn Auckland¹⁶, Adrian V S Hill^{16

17}, Alexander J Mentzer^{16

18}, Consuelo D Quinto-Cortés¹⁹, Kathryn Robson²⁰, Douglas J Kennett²¹, Nick Patterson^{2

8}, Carlos D Bustamante^{10

22}, Andrés Moreno-Estrada¹⁹, Matthew Spriggs^{23

24}, Miguel Vilar²⁵, Mark Lipson^{1

2}, Ron Pinhasi^{4

26}, David Reich^{1

2

8

13}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
² Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
³ Independent Researcher, Albuquerque, NM 87106, USA.
⁴ Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1030, Austria.
⁵ Independent Researcher, Albuquerque, NM 87107, USA.
⁶ Department of Biology, University of Guam, Mangilao 96923, Guam.
⁷ Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
⁸ Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
⁹ Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
¹¹ International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc., Honolulu, HI 96826, USA.
¹² Institutes of Energy and the Environment, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
¹³ Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Genetics, Yale Medical School, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
¹⁶ Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK.
¹⁷ The Jenner Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7DQ, UK.
¹⁸ Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK.
¹⁹ National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity (LANGEBIO), Unit of Advanced Genomics, CINVESTAV, Irapuato 36821, Mexico.
²⁰ MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DS, UK.
²¹ Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
²² Center for Computational, Evolutionary and Human Genomics (CEHG), Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
²³ School of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
²⁴ Vanuatu National Museum, Vanuatu Culture Centre, PO Box 184, Port Vila, Vanuatu.
²⁵ Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
²⁶ Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences, University of Vienna, 1030 Vienna, Austria.

PMID: 35771911
PMCID: PMC9983687
DOI: 10.1126/science.abm6536

Ancient DNA reveals five streams of migration into Micronesia and matrilocality in early Pacific seafarers

Yue-Chen Liu et al. Science. 2022 Jul.

. 2022 Jul;377(6601):72-79.

doi: 10.1126/science.abm6536. Epub 2022 Jun 30.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
² Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
³ Independent Researcher, Albuquerque, NM 87106, USA.
⁴ Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1030, Austria.
⁵ Independent Researcher, Albuquerque, NM 87107, USA.
⁶ Department of Biology, University of Guam, Mangilao 96923, Guam.
⁷ Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
⁸ Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
⁹ Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
¹¹ International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc., Honolulu, HI 96826, USA.
¹² Institutes of Energy and the Environment, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
¹³ Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Genetics, Yale Medical School, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
¹⁶ Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK.
¹⁷ The Jenner Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7DQ, UK.
¹⁸ Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK.
¹⁹ National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity (LANGEBIO), Unit of Advanced Genomics, CINVESTAV, Irapuato 36821, Mexico.
²⁰ MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DS, UK.
²¹ Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
²² Center for Computational, Evolutionary and Human Genomics (CEHG), Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
²³ School of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
²⁴ Vanuatu National Museum, Vanuatu Culture Centre, PO Box 184, Port Vila, Vanuatu.
²⁵ Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
²⁶ Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences, University of Vienna, 1030 Vienna, Austria.

PMID: 35771911
PMCID: PMC9983687
DOI: 10.1126/science.abm6536

Abstract

Micronesia began to be peopled earlier than other parts of Remote Oceania, but the origins of its inhabitants remain unclear. We generated genome-wide data from 164 ancient and 112 modern individuals. Analysis reveals five migratory streams into Micronesia. Three are East Asian related, one is Polynesian, and a fifth is a Papuan source related to mainland New Guineans that is different from the New Britain-related Papuan source for southwest Pacific populations but is similarly derived from male migrants ~2500 to 2000 years ago. People of the Mariana Archipelago may derive all of their precolonial ancestry from East Asian sources, making them the only Remote Oceanians without Papuan ancestry. Female-inherited mitochondrial DNA was highly differentiated across early Remote Oceanian communities but homogeneous within, implying matrilocal practices whereby women almost never raised their children in communities different from the ones in which they grew up.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: C.D.B. is founder and CEO of Galatea Bio. The authors declare no other competing interests.

Figures

**Fig. 1.. Map and PCA.**
(A) Map showing five inferred streams of migration into Micronesia. (B) Principal Component Analysis: axes computed with Dai, Nasioi, and Papuans; others projected.

**Fig. 2.. Clustering analysis.**
Unsupervised ADMIXTURE (K=9 clusters). New data in boldface.

**Fig. 3.. Different Papuan and East Asian affinities.**
Test for differential (A) Papuan and (B) FRO affinities using a merge of the 1240K and MEGA data (~169,000 SNPs) Equation (Eq.) 1 computed with all groups from Vanuatu and Polynesians; Eq. 2 with all Micronesian and New Guinea-related groups except from Guam and Saipan; and Eq. 3 with all present-day groups except Micronesians. We show one standard error in each direction on the y axis. We merged Lapita individuals from Vanuatu and Tonga. See fig. S9 for the same analysis performed on individuals for whom we have ~397,000 SNPs genotyped on a merge of 1240k and Human Origins data.

**Fig. 4.. Quantification of admixture events.**
(A) Proportions of Papuan ancestry in FRO and Latte groups. Thick and thin error bars show one standard error and 95% CI. (B) Ancestry proportions from *qpAdm*. Each group represented by a horizontal bar and partitioned into colored segments, representing different sources of their ancestry. Error bars show one standard error. (C) Admixture graphs. Arrow pairs (head-to-head) denote admixture events. Heights of the colored bars give mixture proportions. (D) Date of admixture. Ranges show two standard errors. (E) Difference between FRO ancestry estimates on the autosomes and the X-chromosome.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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Ancient DNA reveals five streams of migration into Micronesia and matrilocality in early Pacific seafarers

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Ancient DNA reveals five streams of migration into Micronesia and matrilocality in early Pacific seafarers

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Conflict of interest statement

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