Ancient Rapanui genomes reveal resilience and pre-European contact with the Americas.

Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) is one of the most isolated inhabited places in the world. It has captured the imagination of many owing to its archaeological record, which includes iconic megalithic statues called moai1. Two prominent contentions have arisen from the extensive study of Rapa Nui. First, the history of the Rapanui has been presented as a warning tale of resource overexploitation that would have culminated in a major population collapse-the 'ecocide' theory2-4. Second, the possibility of trans-Pacific voyages to the Americas pre-dating European contact is still debated5-7. Here, to address these questions, we reconstructed the genomic history of the Rapanui on the basis of 15 ancient Rapanui individuals that we radiocarbon dated (1670-1950 CE) and whole-genome sequenced (0.4-25.6×). We find that these individuals are Polynesian in origin and most closely related to present-day Rapanui, a finding that will contribute to repatriation efforts. Through effective population size reconstructions and extensive population genetics simulations, we reject a scenario involving a severe population bottleneck during the 1600s, as proposed by the ecocide theory. Furthermore, the ancient and present-day Rapanui carry similar proportions of Native American admixture (about 10%). Using a Bayesian approach integrating genetic and radiocarbon dates, we estimate that this admixture event occurred about 1250-1430 CE.

Measuring the Efficiency of Purging by non-random Mating in Human Populations.

Human populations harbor a high concentration of deleterious genetic variants. Here, we tested the hypothesis that non-random mating practices affect the distribution of these variants, through exposure in the homozygous state, leading to their purging from the population gene pool. To do so, we produced whole-genome sequencing data for two pairs of Asian populations exhibiting different alliance rules and rates of inbreeding, but with similar effective population sizes. The results show that populations with higher rates of inbred matings do not purge deleterious variants more efficiently. Purging therefore has a low efficiency in human populations, and different mating practices lead to a similar mutational load.

Why and when was lactase persistence selected for? Insights from Central Asian herders and ancient DNA.

The genetic adaptation of humans to the consumption of milk from dairying animals is one of the most emblematic cases of recent human evolution. While the phenotypic change under selection, lactase persistence (LP), is known, the evolutionary advantage conferred to persistent individuals remains obscure. One informative but underappreciated observation is that not all populations whose ancestors had access to milk genetically adapted to become lactase persistent. Indeed, Central Asian herders are mostly lactase nonpersistent, despite their significant dietary reliance on dairy products. Investigating the temporal dynamic of the -13.910:C>T Eurasian mutation associated with LP, we found that, after its emergence in Ukraine 5,960 before present (BP), the T allele spread between 4,000 BP and 3,500 BP throughout Eurasia, from Spain to Kazakhstan. The timing and geographical progression of the mutation coincides well with the migration of steppe populations across and outside of Europe. After 3,000 BP, the mutation strongly increased in frequency in Europe, but not in Asia. We propose that Central Asian herders have adapted to milk consumption culturally, by fermentation, and/or by colonic adaptation, rather than genetically. Given the possibility of a nongenetic adaptation to avoid intestinal symptoms when consuming dairy products, the puzzle then becomes this: why has LP been selected for at all?

Us and them: From prejudice to racism. An original analysis of race and racism.

This paper present the content of the Musée de l'Homme exhibition "Us and them: from prejudice to racism" and provides a detailed explanation of how this content has been presented to the public. In a second section of this paper we explain some of the analysis and concepts, from a biological anthropology perspective, that were the foundation of the exhibition and provides some information about the current situation in France.

Neutral Theory: From Complex Population History to Natural Selection and Sociocultural Phenomena in Human Populations.

Here, we present a synthetic view on how Kimura's Neutral theory has helped us gaining insight on the different evolutionary forces that shape human evolution. We put this perspective in the frame of recent emerging challenges: the use of whole genome data for reconstructing population histories, natural selection on complex polygenic traits, and integrating cultural processes in human evolution.

A genome scan for genes underlying adult body size differences between Central African hunter-gatherers and farmers.

The evolutionary and biological bases of the Central African "pygmy" phenotype, a characteristic of rainforest hunter-gatherers defined by reduced body size compared with neighboring farmers, remain largely unknown. Here, we perform a joint investigation in Central African hunter-gatherers and farmers of adult standing height, sitting height, leg length, and body mass index (BMI), considering 358 hunter-gatherers and 169 farmers with genotypes for 153,798 SNPs. In addition to reduced standing heights, hunter-gatherers have shorter sitting heights and leg lengths and higher sitting/standing height ratios than farmers and lower BMI for males. Standing height, sitting height, and leg length are strongly correlated with inferred levels of farmer genetic ancestry, whereas BMI is only weakly correlated, perhaps reflecting greater contributions of non-genetic factors to body weight than to height. Single- and multi-marker association tests identify one region and eight genes associated with hunter-gatherer/farmer status, and 24 genes associated with the height-related traits. Many of these genes have putative functions consistent with roles in determining their associated traits and the pygmy phenotype, and they include three associated with standing height in non-Africans (PRKG1, DSCAM, MAGI2). We find evidence that European height-associated SNPs or variants in linkage disequilibrium with them contribute to standing- and sitting-height determination in Central Africans, but not to the differential status of hunter-gatherers and farmers. These findings provide new insights into the biological basis of the pygmy phenotype, and they highlight the potential of cross-population studies for exploring the genetic basis of phenotypes that vary naturally across populations.

Variation in Rural African Gut Microbiota Is Strongly Correlated with Colonization by Entamoeba and Subsistence.

The human gut microbiota is impacted by host nutrition and health status and therefore represents a potentially adaptive phenotype influenced by metabolic and immune constraints. Previous studies contrasting rural populations in developing countries to urban industrialized ones have shown that industrialization is strongly correlated with patterns in human gut microbiota; however, we know little about the relative contribution of factors such as climate, diet, medicine, hygiene practices, host genetics, and parasitism. Here, we focus on fine-scale comparisons of African rural populations in order to (i) contrast the gut microbiota of populations inhabiting similar environments but having different traditional subsistence modes and either shared or distinct genetic ancestry, and (ii) examine the relationship between gut parasites and bacterial communities. Characterizing the fecal microbiota of Pygmy hunter-gatherers as well as Bantu individuals from both farming and fishing populations in Southwest Cameroon, we found that the gut parasite Entamoeba is significantly correlated with microbiome composition and diversity. We show that across populations, colonization by this protozoa can be predicted with 79% accuracy based on the composition of an individual's gut microbiota, and that several of the taxa most important for distinguishing Entamoeba absence or presence are signature taxa for autoimmune disorders. We also found gut communities to vary significantly with subsistence mode, notably with some taxa previously shown to be enriched in other hunter-gatherers groups (in Tanzania and Peru) also discriminating hunter-gatherers from neighboring farming or fishing populations in Cameroon.

Sex-specific genetic diversity is shaped by cultural factors in Inner Asian human populations.

OBJECTIVES: Sex-specific genetic structures have been previously documented worldwide in humans, even though causal factors have not always clearly been identified. In this study, we investigated the impact of ethnicity, geography and social organization on the sex-specific genetic structure in Inner Asia. Furthermore, we explored the process of ethnogenesis in multiple ethnic groups. METHODS: We sampled DNA in Central and Northern Asia from 39 populations of Indo-Iranian and Turkic-Mongolic native speakers. We focused on genetic data of the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA. First, we compared the frequencies of haplogroups to South European and East Asian populations. Then, we investigated the genetic differentiation for eight Y-STRs and the HVS1 region, and tested for the effect of geography and ethnicity on such patterns. Finally, we reconstructed the male demographic history, inferred split times and effective population sizes of different ethnic groups. RESULTS: Based on the haplogroup data, we observed that the Indo-Iranian- and Turkic-Mongolic-speaking populations have distinct genetic backgrounds. However, each population showed consistent mtDNA and Y chromosome haplogroups patterns. As expected in patrilocal populations, we found that the Y-STRs were more structured than the HVS1. While ethnicity strongly influenced the genetic diversity on the Y chromosome, geography better explained that of the mtDNA. Furthermore, when looking at various ethnic groups, we systematically found a genetic split time older than historical records, suggesting a cultural rather than biological process of ethnogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights that, in Inner Asia, specific cultural behaviors, especially patrilineality and patrilocality, leave a detectable signature on the sex-specific genetic structure.

Statistical inference on genetic data reveals the complex demographic history of human populations in central Asia.

The demographic history of modern humans constitutes a combination of expansions, colonizations, contractions, and remigrations. The advent of large scale genetic data combined with statistically refined methods facilitates inference of this complex history. Here we study the demographic history of two genetically admixed ethnic groups in Central Asia, an area characterized by high levels of genetic diversity and a history of recurrent immigration. Using Approximate Bayesian Computation, we infer that the timing of admixture markedly differs between the two groups. Admixture in the traditionally agricultural Tajiks could be dated back to the onset of the Neolithic transition in the region, whereas admixture in Kyrgyz is more recent, and may have involved the westward movement of Turkic peoples. These results are confirmed by a coalescent method that fits an isolation-with-migration model to the genetic data, with both Central Asian groups having received gene flow from the extremities of Eurasia. Interestingly, our analyses also uncover signatures of gene flow from Eastern to Western Eurasia during Paleolithic times. In conclusion, the high genetic diversity currently observed in these two Central Asian peoples most likely reflects the effects of recurrent immigration that likely started before historical times. Conversely, conquests during historical times may have had a relatively limited genetic impact. These results emphasize the need for a better understanding of the genetic consequences of transmission of culture and technological innovations, as well as those of invasions and conquests.

Inference of sex-specific expansion patterns in human populations from Y-chromosome polymorphism.

Studying the current distribution of genetic diversity in humans has important implications for our understanding of the history of our species. We analyzed a set of linked STR and SNP loci from the paternally inherited Y chromosome to infer the past demography of 55 African and Eurasian populations, using both the parametric and nonparametric coalescent-based methods implemented in the BEAST application. We inferred expansion events in most sedentary farmer populations, while we found constant effective population sizes for both nomadic hunter-gatherers and seminomadic herders. Our results differed, on several aspects, from previous results on mtDNA and autosomal markers. First, we found more recent expansion patterns in Eurasia than in Africa. This discrepancy, substantially stronger than the ones found with the other kind of markers, may result from a lower effective population size for men, which might have made male-transmitted markers more sensitive to the out-of-Africa bottleneck. Second, we found expansion signals only for sedentary farmers but not for nomadic herders in Central Asia, while these signals were found for both kind of populations in this area when using mtDNA or autosomal markers. Expansion signals in this area may result from spatial expansion processes and may have been erased for the Y chromosome among the herders because of restricted male gene flow.

Patrilineal populations show more male transmission of reproductive success than cognatic populations in Central Asia, which reduces their genetic diversity.

OBJECTIVE: The extent to which social organization of human societies impacts the patterns of genetic diversity remains an open question. Here, we investigate the transmission of reproductive success in patrilineal and cognatic populations from Central Asia using a coalescent approach. METHODS: We performed a study on the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome polymorphism of patrilineal and cognatic populations from Central Asia. We reconstructed the gene genealogies in each population for both kind of markers and inferred the imbalance level of these genealogies, a parameter directly related to the level of transmission of reproductive success. RESULTS: This imbalance level appeared much stronger for the Y chromosome in patrilineal populations than in cognatic populations, while no difference was found for mtDNA. Furthermore, we showed that this imbalance level correlates negatively with Y-chromosomal, mtDNA, and autosomal genetic diversity. CONCLUSIONS: This shows that patrilineality might be one of the factors explaining the male transmission of reproductive success, which, in turn, lead to a reduction of genetic diversity. Thus, notwithstanding the fact that our population genetic approach clearly shows that there is a strong male-biased transmission of reproductive success in patrilineal societies, it also highlights the fact that a social process such as cultural transmission of reproductive success could play an important role in shaping human genetic diversity, although we cannot formally exclude that this transmission has also a genetic component.

Gene conversion violates the stepwise mutation model for microsatellites in y-chromosomal palindromic repeats.

The male-specific region of the human Y chromosome (MSY) contains eight large inverted repeats (palindromes), in which high-sequence similarity between repeat arms is maintained by gene conversion. These palindromes also harbor microsatellites, considered to evolve via a stepwise mutation model (SMM). Here, we ask whether gene conversion between palindrome microsatellites contributes to their mutational dynamics. First, we study the duplicated tetranucleotide microsatellite DYS385a,b lying in palindrome P4. We show, by comparing observed data with simulated data under a SMM within haplogroups, that observed heteroallelic combinations in which the modal repeat number difference between copies was large, can give rise to homoallelic combinations with zero-repeats difference, equivalent to many single-step mutations. These are unlikely to be generated under a strict SMM, suggesting the action of gene conversion. Second, we show that the intercopy repeat number difference for a large set of duplicated microsatellites in all palindromes in the MSY reference sequence is significantly reduced compared with that for nonpalindrome-duplicated microsatellites, suggesting that the former are characterized by unusual evolutionary dynamics. These observations indicate that gene conversion violates the SMM for microsatellites in palindromes, homogenizing copies within individual Y chromosomes, but increasing overall haplotype diversity among chromosomes within related groups.

Human genetic data reveal contrasting demographic patterns between sedentary and nomadic populations that predate the emergence of farming.

Demographic changes are known to leave footprints on genetic polymorphism. Together with the increased availability of large polymorphism data sets, coalescent-based methods allow inferring the past demography of populations from their present-day patterns of genetic diversity. Here, we analyzed both nuclear (20 noncoding regions) and mitochondrial (HVS-I) resequencing data to infer the demographic history of 66 African and Eurasian human populations presenting contrasting lifestyles (nomadic hunter-gatherers, nomadic herders, and sedentary farmers). This allowed us to investigate the relationship between lifestyle and demography and to address the long-standing debate about the chronology of demographic expansions and the Neolithic transition. In Africa, we inferred expansion events for farmers, but constant population sizes or contraction events for hunter-gatherers. In Eurasia, we inferred higher expansion rates for farmers than herders with HVS-I data, except in Central Asia and Korea. Although isolation and admixture processes could have impacted our demographic inferences, these processes alone seem unlikely to explain the contrasted demographic histories inferred in populations with different lifestyles. The small expansion rates or constant population sizes inferred for herders and hunter-gatherers may thus result from constraints linked to nomadism. However, autosomal data revealed contraction events for two sedentary populations in Eurasia, which may be caused by founder effects. Finally, the inferred expansions likely predated the emergence of agriculture and herding. This suggests that human populations could have started to expand in Paleolithic times, and that strong Paleolithic expansions in some populations may have ultimately favored their shift toward agriculture during the Neolithic.

Sociocultural behavior, sex-biased admixture, and effective population sizes in Central African Pygmies and non-Pygmies.

Sociocultural phenomena, such as exogamy or phylopatry, can largely determine human sex-specific demography. In Central Africa, diverging patterns of sex-specific genetic variation have been observed between mobile hunter-gatherer Pygmies and sedentary agricultural non-Pygmies. However, their sex-specific demography remains largely unknown. Using population genetics and approximate Bayesian computation approaches, we inferred male and female effective population sizes, sex-specific migration, and admixture rates in 23 Central African Pygmy and non-Pygmy populations, genotyped for autosomal, X-linked, Y-linked, and mitochondrial markers. We found much larger effective population sizes and migration rates among non-Pygmy populations than among Pygmies, in agreement with the recent expansions and migrations of non-Pygmies and, conversely, the isolation and stationary demography of Pygmy groups. We found larger effective sizes and migration rates for males than for females for Pygmies, and vice versa for non-Pygmies. Thus, although most Pygmy populations have patrilocal customs, their sex-specific genetic patterns resemble those of matrilocal populations. In fact, our results are consistent with a lower prevalence of polygyny and patrilocality in Pygmies compared with non-Pygmies and a potential female transmission of reproductive success in Pygmies. Finally, Pygmy populations showed variable admixture levels with the non-Pygmies, with often much larger introgression from male than from female lineages. Social discrimination against Pygmies triggering complex movements of spouses in intermarriages can explain these male-biased admixture patterns in a patrilocal context. We show how gender-related sociocultural phenomena can determine highly variable sex-specific demography among populations, and how population genetic approaches contrasting chromosomal types allow inferring detailed human sex-specific demographic history.

Lactase persistence variants in Arabia and in the African Arabs.

Lactase persistence (LP), the state enabling the digestion of milk sugar in adulthood, occurs only in some human populations. The convergent and independent origin of this physiological ability in Europe and Africa is linked with animal domestication that either had started in both places independently or had spread from the Near East by acculturation. However, it has recently been shown that at least in its southern parts, the population of Arabia not only has a different LP-associated mutation profile than the rest of Africa and Europe but also had experienced an independent demographic expansion occurring before the Neolithic around the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. In Arabia, LP is associated with mutation -13,915*G and not, as in Europe, with -13,910*T or, as in Africa, with -13,907*G and -14,010*C. We show here that, in Arabia, -13,915*G frequency conforms to a partial clinal pattern and that this specific mutation has likely been spread from Arabia to Africa only recently from the sixth century AD onward by nomadic Arabs (Bedouins) looking for new pastures. Arabic populations in Africa that still maintain a nomadic way of life also have more -13,915*G variants and fewer sub-Saharan L-type mitochondrial DNA haplogroups; this observation matches archaeological and historical records suggesting that the migration of Arabic pastoralists was accompanied by gradual sedentarization that allowed for admixture with the local African population.

Patrilineal segmentary systems provide a peaceful explanation for the post-Neolithic Y-chromosome bottleneck.

Studies have found a pronounced decline in male effective population sizes worldwide around 3000-5000 years ago. This bottleneck was not observed for female effective population sizes, which continued to increase over time. Until now, this remarkable genetic pattern was interpreted as the result of an ancient structuring of human populations into patrilineal groups (gathering closely related males) violently competing with each other. In this scenario, violence is responsible for the repeated extinctions of patrilineal groups, leading to a significant reduction in male effective population size. Here, we propose an alternative hypothesis by modelling a segmentary patrilineal system based on anthropological literature. We show that variance in reproductive success between patrilineal groups, combined with lineal fission (i.e., the splitting of a group into two new groups of patrilineally related individuals), can lead to a substantial reduction in the male effective population size without resorting to the violence hypothesis. Thus, a peaceful explanation involving ancient changes in social structures, linked to global changes in subsistence systems, may be sufficient to explain the reported decline in Y-chromosome diversity.

Cultural transmission of reproductive success impacts genomic diversity, coalescent tree topologies, and demographic inferences.

Cultural transmission of reproductive success has been observed in many human populations as well as other animals. Cultural transmission of reproductive success consists of a positive correlation of nongenetic origin between the progeny size of parents and children. This correlation can result from various factors, such as the social influence of parents on their children, the increase of children's survival through allocare from uncles and aunts, or the transmission of resources. Here, we study the evolution of genomic diversity over time under cultural transmission of reproductive success. Cultural transmission of reproductive success has a threefold impact on population genetics: (1) the effective population size decreases when cultural transmission of reproductive success starts, mimicking a population contraction, and increases back to its original value when cultural transmission of reproductive success stops; (2) coalescent tree topologies are distorted under cultural transmission of reproductive success, with higher imbalance and a higher number of polytomies; and (3) branch lengths are reduced nonhomogenously, with a higher impact on older branches. Under long-lasting cultural transmission of reproductive success, the effective population size stabilizes but the distortion of tree topology and the nonhomogenous branch length reduction remain, yielding U-shaped site frequency spectra under a constant population size. We show that this yields a bias in site frequency spectra-based demographic inference. Considering that cultural transmission of reproductive success was detected in numerous human and animal populations worldwide, one should be cautious because inferring population past histories from genomic data can be biased by this cultural process.

Inferring the demographic history of African farmers and pygmy hunter-gatherers using a multilocus resequencing data set.

The transition from hunting and gathering to farming involved a major cultural innovation that has spread rapidly over most of the globe in the last ten millennia. In sub-Saharan Africa, hunter-gatherers have begun to shift toward an agriculture-based lifestyle over the last 5,000 years. Only a few populations still base their mode of subsistence on hunting and gathering. The Pygmies are considered to be the largest group of mobile hunter-gatherers of Africa. They dwell in equatorial rainforests and are characterized by their short mean stature. However, little is known about the chronology of the demographic events-size changes, population splits, and gene flow--ultimately giving rise to contemporary Pygmy (Western and Eastern) groups and neighboring agricultural populations. We studied the branching history of Pygmy hunter-gatherers and agricultural populations from Africa and estimated separation times and gene flow between these populations. We resequenced 24 independent noncoding regions across the genome, corresponding to a total of approximately 33 kb per individual, in 236 samples from seven Pygmy and five agricultural populations dispersed over the African continent. We used simulation-based inference to identify the historical model best fitting our data. The model identified included the early divergence of the ancestors of Pygmy hunter-gatherers and farming populations approximately 60,000 years ago, followed by a split of the Pygmies' ancestors into the Western and Eastern Pygmy groups approximately 20,000 years ago. Our findings increase knowledge of the history of the peopling of the African continent in a region lacking archaeological data. An appreciation of the demographic and adaptive history of African populations with different modes of subsistence should improve our understanding of the influence of human lifestyles on genome diversity.

Genetic continuity of Indo-Iranian speakers since the Iron Age in southern Central Asia.

Since prehistoric times, southern Central Asia has been at the crossroads of the movement of people, culture, and goods. Today, the Central Asian populations are divided into two cultural and linguistic groups: the Indo-Iranian and the Turko-Mongolian groups. Previous genetic studies unveiled that migrations from East Asia contributed to the spread of Turko-Mongolian populations in Central Asia and the partial replacement of the Indo-Iranian populations. However, little is known about the origin of the latters. To shed light on this, we compare the genetic data on two current-day Indo-Iranian populations - Yaghnobis and Tajiks - with genome-wide data from published ancient individuals. The present Indo-Iranian populations from Central Asia display a strong genetic continuity with Iron Age samples from Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. We model Yaghnobis as a mixture of 93% Iron Age individual from Turkmenistan and 7% from Baikal. For the Tajiks, we observe a higher Baikal ancestry and an additional admixture event with a South Asian population. Our results, therefore, suggest that in addition to a complex history, Central Asia shows a remarkable genetic continuity since the Iron Age, with only limited gene flow.

Genetic analysis of a bronze age individual from Ulug-depe (Turkmenistan).

The Oxus Civilisation (or Bactrio-Margian Archaeological Complex, BMAC) was the main archaeological culture of the Bronze Age in southern Central Asia. Paleogenetic analyses were previously conducted mainly on samples from the eastern part of BMAC. The population associated with BMAC descends from local Chalcolithic populations, with some outliers of steppe or South-Asian descent. Here, we present new genome-wide data for one individual from Ulug-depe (Turkmenistan), one of the main BMAC sites, located at the southwestern edge of the BMAC. We demonstrate that this individual genetically belongs to the BMAC cluster. Using this genome, we confirm that modern Indo-Iranian-speaking populations from Central Asia derive their ancestry from BMAC populations, with additional gene flow from the western and the Altai steppes in higher proportions among the Tajiks than the Yagnobi ethnic group.