Ancient and Modern Genomics of the Ohlone Indigenous Population of California

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2022 Mar 21

PMID 35312358

Authors

Alissa L Severson

Brian F Byrd

Elizabeth K Mallott

Amanda C Owings

Michael DeGiorgio

Alida de Flamingh

Charlene Nijmeh

Monica V Arellano

Alan Leventhal

Noah A Rosenberg

Ripan S Malhi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

SignificanceCalifornia supports a high cultural and linguistic diversity of Indigenous peoples. In a partnership of researchers with the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, we studied genomes of eight present-day tribal members and 12 ancient individuals from two archaeological sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, spanning ∼2,000 y. We find that compared to genomes of Indigenous individuals from throughout the Americas, the 12 ancient individuals are most genetically similar to ancient individuals from Southern California, and that despite spanning a large time period, they share distinctive ancestry. This ancestry is also shared with present-day tribal members, providing evidence of genetic continuity between past and present Indigenous individuals in the region, in contrast to some popular reconstructions based on archaeological and linguistic information.

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