Paleo-Eskimo genetic legacy across North America: sequence data. Paleo-Eskimo genetic legacy across North America

Paleo-Eskimos were the first people to settle vast regions of the American Arctic around 5,000 years ago, and were subsequently joined and largely displaced around 1,000 years ago by ancestors of present-day Inuit and Yup’ik. The genetic relationship between Paleo-Eskimos and Native American, Inuit, Yup’ik and Aleut populations remains uncertain. Here we present new genomic data for ancient individuals from Chukotka, East Siberia, the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and the Canadian Arctic. We co-analyze these data with new data from present-day Alaskan Iñupiat and West Siberian populations and published genomes. Employing new methods based on rare allele and haplotype sharing as well as established methods, we show that Paleo-Eskimo-related admixture is ubiquitous among populations speaking Na-Dene and Eskimo-Aleut languages. We develop a comprehensive model for the Holocene peopling events of Chukotka and North America, and show that several key migrations connected to the origin of the Na-Dene peoples, the peopling of the Aleutian Islands, and the spread of Yup’ik and Inuit across the Arctic region are genetically linked to a single Siberian source related to Paleo-Eskimos.

古爱斯基摩人（Paleo-Eskimos）是约5000年前首个定居美洲北极广袤区域的人群，约1000年前被现今因纽特（Inuit）和尤皮克（Yup’ik）人的祖先相继迁入并在很大程度上取代。古爱斯基摩人与美洲原住民、因纽特、尤皮克及阿留申（Aleut）人群之间的遗传亲缘关系至今尚不明确。本研究报道了来自东西伯利亚楚科奇（Chukotka）、阿留申群岛、阿拉斯加以及加拿大北极地区的古代个体的全新基因组数据。我们将这些数据与现今阿拉斯加伊努皮亚特（Iñupiat）人群、西西伯利亚人群的新测序基因组以及已发表的基因组进行联合分析。借助基于稀有等位基因和单倍型共享的全新分析方法，结合经典分析手段，我们证实与古爱斯基摩人相关的遗传混合在讷-德内（Na-Dene）和爱斯基摩-阿留申（Eskimo-Aleut）语系人群中普遍存在。我们构建了楚科奇与北美地区全新世人群定居事件的综合模型，并揭示出与讷-德内人群起源、阿留申群岛殖民以及尤皮克和因纽特人群在北极区域的扩散这几项关键迁徙事件，均与一个与古爱斯基摩人相关的西伯利亚单一遗传源人群存在遗传关联。