Middle Holocene Siberian genomes reveals highly connected gene pool throughout North Asia

The ancient human population dynamics in North Asia remain largely unexplored due to the limited number of ancient genomes analysed from this region. Here we report genome-wide data of ten individuals as early as 7500 years before present (BP) from three regions in North Asia, namely Altai-Sayan, Russian Far East and the Kamchatka Peninsula. We discover a previously undescribed early Holocene Siberian gene pool in the Neolithic Altai-Sayan region carrying a genetic mixture between paleo-Siberian and Ancient North Eurasian (ANE) ancestries. This unique gene pool represents an optimal source for the inferred ANE-related population that contributed to early Bronze Age Okunevo Steppe individuals from Inner Asia, and also to the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies. We find the presence of Ancient Northeast Asian (ANA) ancestry – previously described in Neolithic populations from the Russian Far East– in another Neolithic Altai-Sayan individual but associated with a distinct cultural feature, revealing the spread of ANA ancestry much further to the west than previously observed. We also report multiple phases of gene flow from North America to northeastern Asia over the past 4000 years, reaching the Kamchatka Peninsula and central Siberia. Our findings highlight highly interconnected population dynamics throughout North Asia from the early Holocene onwards.