Cargando…

The role of Beringia in human adaptation to Arctic conditions based on results of genomic studies of modern and ancient populations

The results of studies in Quaternary geology, archeology, paleoanthropology and human genetics demonstrate that the ancestors of Native Americans arrived in mid-latitude North America mainly along the Pacific Northwest Coast, but had previously inhabited the Arctic and during the last glacial maximu...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Malyarchuk, B.A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10350865/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37465192
http://dx.doi.org/10.18699/VJGB-23-45
_version_ 1785074231815438336
author Malyarchuk, B.A.
author_facet Malyarchuk, B.A.
author_sort Malyarchuk, B.A.
collection PubMed
description The results of studies in Quaternary geology, archeology, paleoanthropology and human genetics demonstrate that the ancestors of Native Americans arrived in mid-latitude North America mainly along the Pacific Northwest Coast, but had previously inhabited the Arctic and during the last glacial maximum were in a refugium in Beringia, a land bridge connecting Eurasia and North America. The gene pool of Native Americans is represented by unique haplogroups of mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome, the evolutionary age of which ranges from 13 to 22 thousand years. The results of a paleogenomic analysis also show that during the last glacial maximum Beringia was populated by human groups that had arisen as a result of interaction between the most ancient Upper Paleolithic populations of Northern Eurasia and newcomer groups from East Asia. Approximately 20 thousand years ago the Beringian populations began to form, and the duration of their existence in relative isolation is estimated at about 5 thousand years. Thus, the adaptation of the Beringians to the Arctic conditions could have taken several millennia. The adaptation of Amerindian ancestors to high latitudes and cold climates is supported by genomic data showing that adaptive genetic variants in Native Americans are associated with various metabolic pathways: melanin production processes in the skin, hair and eyes, the functioning of the cardiovascular system, energy metabolism and immune response characteristics. Meanwhile, the analysis of the existing hypotheses about the selection of some genetic variants in the Beringian ancestors of the Amerindians in connection with adaptation to the Arctic conditions (for example, in the FADS, ACTN3, EDAR genes) shows the ambiguity of the testing results, which may be due to the loss of some traces of the “Beringian” adaptation in the gene pools of modern Native Americans. The most optimal strategy for further research seems to be the search for adaptive variant
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10350865
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-103508652023-07-18 The role of Beringia in human adaptation to Arctic conditions based on results of genomic studies of modern and ancient populations Malyarchuk, B.A. Vavilovskii Zhurnal Genet Selektsii Review The results of studies in Quaternary geology, archeology, paleoanthropology and human genetics demonstrate that the ancestors of Native Americans arrived in mid-latitude North America mainly along the Pacific Northwest Coast, but had previously inhabited the Arctic and during the last glacial maximum were in a refugium in Beringia, a land bridge connecting Eurasia and North America. The gene pool of Native Americans is represented by unique haplogroups of mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome, the evolutionary age of which ranges from 13 to 22 thousand years. The results of a paleogenomic analysis also show that during the last glacial maximum Beringia was populated by human groups that had arisen as a result of interaction between the most ancient Upper Paleolithic populations of Northern Eurasia and newcomer groups from East Asia. Approximately 20 thousand years ago the Beringian populations began to form, and the duration of their existence in relative isolation is estimated at about 5 thousand years. Thus, the adaptation of the Beringians to the Arctic conditions could have taken several millennia. The adaptation of Amerindian ancestors to high latitudes and cold climates is supported by genomic data showing that adaptive genetic variants in Native Americans are associated with various metabolic pathways: melanin production processes in the skin, hair and eyes, the functioning of the cardiovascular system, energy metabolism and immune response characteristics. Meanwhile, the analysis of the existing hypotheses about the selection of some genetic variants in the Beringian ancestors of the Amerindians in connection with adaptation to the Arctic conditions (for example, in the FADS, ACTN3, EDAR genes) shows the ambiguity of the testing results, which may be due to the loss of some traces of the “Beringian” adaptation in the gene pools of modern Native Americans. The most optimal strategy for further research seems to be the search for adaptive variant The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2023-07 /pmc/articles/PMC10350865/ /pubmed/37465192 http://dx.doi.org/10.18699/VJGB-23-45 Text en Copyright © AUTHORS https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
spellingShingle Review
Malyarchuk, B.A.
The role of Beringia in human adaptation to Arctic conditions based on results of genomic studies of modern and ancient populations
title The role of Beringia in human adaptation to Arctic conditions based on results of genomic studies of modern and ancient populations
title_full The role of Beringia in human adaptation to Arctic conditions based on results of genomic studies of modern and ancient populations
title_fullStr The role of Beringia in human adaptation to Arctic conditions based on results of genomic studies of modern and ancient populations
title_full_unstemmed The role of Beringia in human adaptation to Arctic conditions based on results of genomic studies of modern and ancient populations
title_short The role of Beringia in human adaptation to Arctic conditions based on results of genomic studies of modern and ancient populations
title_sort role of beringia in human adaptation to arctic conditions based on results of genomic studies of modern and ancient populations
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10350865/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37465192
http://dx.doi.org/10.18699/VJGB-23-45
work_keys_str_mv AT malyarchukba theroleofberingiainhumanadaptationtoarcticconditionsbasedonresultsofgenomicstudiesofmodernandancientpopulations
AT malyarchukba roleofberingiainhumanadaptationtoarcticconditionsbasedonresultsofgenomicstudiesofmodernandancientpopulations