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Review
. 2025 Feb 14;44(1):5.
doi: 10.1186/s40101-024-00382-3.

Human dispersal into East Eurasia: ancient genome insights and the need for research on physiological adaptations

Steven Abood  1 , Hiroki Oota  2
Affiliations
Review

Human dispersal into East Eurasia: ancient genome insights and the need for research on physiological adaptations

Steven Abood et al. J Physiol Anthropol. .

Abstract

Humans have long pondered their genesis. The answer to the great question of where Homo sapiens come from has evolved in conjunction with biotechnologies that have allowed us to more brightly illuminate our distant past. The "Multiregional Evolution" model was once the hegemonic theory of Homo sapiens origins, but in the last 30 years, it has been supplanted by the "Out of Africa" model. Here, we review the major findings that have resulted in this paradigmatic shift. These include hominin brain expansion, classical insight from the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) regarding the timing of the divergence point between Africans and non-Africans, and next-generation sequencing (NGS) of the Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes. These findings largely bolstered the "Out of Africa" model, although they also revealed a small degree of introgression of the Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes into those of non-African Homo sapiens. We also review paleogenomic studies for which migration route, north or south, early migrants to East Eurasia most likely traversed. Whichever route was taken, the migrants moved to higher latitudes, which necessitated adaptation for lower light conditions, colder clines, and pro-adipogenic mechanisms to counteract food scarcity. Further genetic and epigenetic investigations of these physiological adaptations constitute an integral aspect of the story of human origins and human migration to East Asia.

Keywords: Cold adaptation; East Asian migration; Multiregional Evolution model; Obesity; Out of Africa model.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The Multiregional Evolution hypothesis
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The Out of Africa hypothesis
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The dispersal of Homo sapiens into eastern Eurasia, modified from Kaifu, Izuho, and Goebel (2015)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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