1. An Aboriginal Australian genome reveals separate human dispersals into Asia.
- Author
-
Rasmussen M, Guo X, Wang Y, Lohmueller KE, Rasmussen S, Albrechtsen A, Skotte L, Lindgreen S, Metspalu M, Jombart T, Kivisild T, Zhai W, Eriksson A, Manica A, Orlando L, De La Vega FM, Tridico S, Metspalu E, Nielsen K, Ávila-Arcos MC, Moreno-Mayar JV, Muller C, Dortch J, Gilbert MT, Lund O, Wesolowska A, Karmin M, Weinert LA, Wang B, Li J, Tai S, Xiao F, Hanihara T, van Driem G, Jha AR, Ricaut FX, de Knijff P, Migliano AB, Gallego Romero I, Kristiansen K, Lambert DM, Brunak S, Forster P, Brinkmann B, Nehlich O, Bunce M, Richards M, Gupta R, Bustamante CD, Krogh A, Foley RA, Lahr MM, Balloux F, Sicheritz-Pontén T, Villems R, Nielsen R, Wang J, and Willerslev E
- Subjects
- Animals, Asia, Asian People genetics, Black People, Computer Simulation, DNA, Mitochondrial genetics, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity genetics, Asia, Eastern, Gene Flow, Gene Frequency, Genetics, Population methods, Genome, Mitochondrial, Haplotypes, Hominidae genetics, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Phylogeny, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Western Australia, White People genetics, Genome, Human, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander genetics
- Abstract
We present an Aboriginal Australian genomic sequence obtained from a 100-year-old lock of hair donated by an Aboriginal man from southern Western Australia in the early 20th century. We detect no evidence of European admixture and estimate contamination levels to be below 0.5%. We show that Aboriginal Australians are descendants of an early human dispersal into eastern Asia, possibly 62,000 to 75,000 years ago. This dispersal is separate from the one that gave rise to modern Asians 25,000 to 38,000 years ago. We also find evidence of gene flow between populations of the two dispersal waves prior to the divergence of Native Americans from modern Asian ancestors. Our findings support the hypothesis that present-day Aboriginal Australians descend from the earliest humans to occupy Australia, likely representing one of the oldest continuous populations outside Africa.
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF