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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CAMERA (Characterizing Adaptation and Migration Events with Modern and Ancient Genomes)

Teaser

Summary

In this project we are trying to better understand how humans peopled the world and how they adapted to the new environments they encountered during their dispersal. To work towards those objectives we plan to generate and analyze snapshots of DNA through time from both ancient and modern human populations. We then compare the DNA data we generate alongside publically available data and we infer the demographic history of those populations. Moreover, we look for signature of selection at the molecular level. To do this work, we use existing population genetic tools but we also develop new methodology. Our results should have a societal impact as we can reconstruct the human past thanks to DNA data but also raise awareness about indigenous groups as we study the people who first got to specific areas.

Work performed

So far, for the Americas, we have been able to show that the first migrants moved quickly from North to South in mostly one migration wave. We were also able to show that South American populations have a special relationship to Oceanian populations, as if the population that first entered the Americas was deeply structured. Moreover, our data suggests that contemporary indigenous groups in Chile/Patagonia are likely the direct descendants of the ancient groups living there thousands of years ago. For Oceania, we have obtained a similar result. We have found that there is a strong genetic affinity between ancient and contemporary Aboriginal Australian individuals from the same geographic location.

Final results

Traditionally, the human past was studied with paleoanthropological data. We show here that by using state of the art methodology, we can generate DNA data from both modern and ancient humans. By doing so, we can complement paleoanthropological data to refine the story of our humanity.