Ancient DNA reveals five streams of migration into Micronesia and matrilocality in early Pacific seafarers

Yue-Chen Liu; Rosalind Hunter-Anderson; Olivia Cheronet; Joanne Eakin; Frank Camacho; Michael Pietrusewsky; Nadin Rohland; Alexander Ioannidis; J Stephen Athens; Michele Toomay Douglas; Rona Michi Ikehara-Quebral; Rebecca Bernardos; Brendan J Culleton; Matthew Mah; Nicole Adamski; Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht; Kimberly Callan; Ann Marie Lawson; Kirsten Mandl; Megan Michel; Jonas Oppenheimer; Kristin Stewardson; Fatma Zalzala; Kenneth Kidd; Judith Kidd; Theodore G Schurr; Kathryn Auckland; Adrian V S Hill; Alexander J Mentzer; Consuelo D Quinto-Cortés; Kathryn Robson; Douglas J Kennett; Nick Patterson; Carlos D Bustamante; Andrés Moreno-Estrada; Matthew Spriggs; Miguel Vilar; Mark Lipson; Ron Pinhasi; David Reich

doi:10.1126/science.abm6536

Ancient DNA reveals five streams of migration into Micronesia and matrilocality in early Pacific seafarers

Science. 2022 Jul;377(6601):72-79. doi: 10.1126/science.abm6536. Epub 2022 Jun 30.

Authors

Yue-Chen Liu^{1

2}, Rosalind Hunter-Anderson³, Olivia Cheronet⁴, Joanne Eakin⁵, Frank Camacho⁶, Michael Pietrusewsky⁷, Nadin Rohland^{1

8}, Alexander Ioannidis^{9

10}, J Stephen Athens¹¹, Michele Toomay Douglas¹¹, Rona Michi Ikehara-Quebral¹¹, Rebecca Bernardos¹, Brendan J Culleton¹², Matthew Mah^{1

8

13}, Nicole Adamski^{1

13}, Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht^{1

13}, Kimberly Callan^{1

13}, Ann Marie Lawson^{1

13}, Kirsten Mandl⁴, Megan Michel^{1

13}, Jonas Oppenheimer^{1

13}, Kristin Stewardson^{1

13}, Fatma Zalzala^{1

13}, Kenneth Kidd¹⁴, Judith Kidd¹⁴, Theodore G Schurr¹⁵, Kathryn Auckland¹⁶, Adrian V S Hill^{16

17}, Alexander J Mentzer^{16

18}, Consuelo D Quinto-Cortés¹⁹, Kathryn Robson²⁰, Douglas J Kennett²¹, Nick Patterson^{2

8}, Carlos D Bustamante^{10

22}, Andrés Moreno-Estrada¹⁹, Matthew Spriggs^{23

24}, Miguel Vilar²⁵, Mark Lipson^{1

2}, Ron Pinhasi^{4

26}, David Reich^{1

2

8

13}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
² Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
³ Independent Researcher, Albuquerque, NM 87106, USA.
⁴ Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1030, Austria.
⁵ Independent Researcher, Albuquerque, NM 87107, USA.
⁶ Department of Biology, University of Guam, Mangilao 96923, Guam.
⁷ Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
⁸ Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
⁹ Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
¹¹ International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc., Honolulu, HI 96826, USA.
¹² Institutes of Energy and the Environment, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
¹³ Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Genetics, Yale Medical School, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
¹⁶ Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK.
¹⁷ The Jenner Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7DQ, UK.
¹⁸ Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK.
¹⁹ National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity (LANGEBIO), Unit of Advanced Genomics, CINVESTAV, Irapuato 36821, Mexico.
²⁰ MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DS, UK.
²¹ Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
²² Center for Computational, Evolutionary and Human Genomics (CEHG), Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
²³ School of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
²⁴ Vanuatu National Museum, Vanuatu Culture Centre, PO Box 184, Port Vila, Vanuatu.
²⁵ Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
²⁶ Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences, University of Vienna, 1030 Vienna, Austria.

Abstract

Micronesia began to be peopled earlier than other parts of Remote Oceania, but the origins of its inhabitants remain unclear. We generated genome-wide data from 164 ancient and 112 modern individuals. Analysis reveals five migratory streams into Micronesia. Three are East Asian related, one is Polynesian, and a fifth is a Papuan source related to mainland New Guineans that is different from the New Britain-related Papuan source for southwest Pacific populations but is similarly derived from male migrants ~2500 to 2000 years ago. People of the Mariana Archipelago may derive all of their precolonial ancestry from East Asian sources, making them the only Remote Oceanians without Papuan ancestry. Female-inherited mitochondrial DNA was highly differentiated across early Remote Oceanian communities but homogeneous within, implying matrilocal practices whereby women almost never raised their children in communities different from the ones in which they grew up.

Publication types

Historical Article

MeSH terms

Asian People / genetics
Child
DNA, Ancient*
DNA, Mitochondrial* / genetics
Female
History, Ancient
Human Migration* / history
Humans
Male
Micronesia
Oceania

Substances

DNA, Ancient
DNA, Mitochondrial

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

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