Ancient human genome sequence of an extinct Palaeo-Eskimo
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- Ancient human genome sequence of an extinct Palaeo-Eskimo_(publisher_version)
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We report here the genome sequence of an ancient human. Obtained from approximately 4,000-year-old permafrost-preserved hair, the genome represents a male individual from the first known culture to settle in Greenland. Sequenced to an average depth of 20x, we recover 79% of the diploid genome, an amount close to the practical limit of current sequencing technologies. We identify 353,151 high-confidence single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), of which 6.8% have not been reported previously. We estimate raw read contamination to be no higher than 0.8%. We use functional SNP assessment to assign possible phenotypic characteristics of the individual that belonged to a culture whose location has yielded only trace human remains. We compare the high-confidence SNPs to those of contemporary populations to find the populations most closely related to the individual. This provides evidence for a migration from Siberia into the New World some 5,500 years ago, independent of that giving rise to the modern Native Americans and Inuit.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Nature |
Volume | 463 |
Issue number | 7282 |
Pages (from-to) | 757-762 |
Number of pages | 6 |
ISSN | 0028-0836 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 11 Feb 2010 |
- Cryopreservation, Emigration and Immigration, Extinction, Biological, Genetics, Population, Genome, Human, Genomics, Genotype, Greenland, Hair, History, Ancient, Humans, Inuits, Male, Phenotype, Phylogeny, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Siberia
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ID: 33912089