Ancient genomes from eastern Kazakhstan reveal dynamic genetic legacy of Inner Eurasian hunter-gatherers

Eurasian Steppe meets the mountain forests of Inner Asia. Here we report
genome-wide data of two Early Neolithic (EN) hunter-gatherers and 19
Middle-Late Bronze Age (MLBA) pastoralists, from the site of Koken in the
Upper Irtysh River region in eastern Kazakhstan. We find that the two EN
individuals differed in their genetic profiles and yet were second-degree
relatives. They were genetically most similar to subsequent Neolithic
individuals in the Irtysh region, while contemporaneous hunter-gatherers
from the Tobol-Ishim and Upper Ob River regions had distinct genetic
profiles, likely influenced by riverine geography. The Koken MLBA
individuals were genetically similar to other MLBA steppe pastoralists,
while genetic outliers provide evidence of two distinct trajectories of
admixture with local hunter-gatherer populations. These findings
illuminate the dynamic population structure of Inner Asian
hunter-gatherers and their genetic legacy in subsequent pastoralist
populations.