Ancient genomes from Iceland reveal the making of a human population

Opportunities to directly study the founding of a human population and its subsequent evolutionary history are rare. Using genome sequence data from 27 ancient Icelanders, we demonstrate that they are a combination of Norse, Gaelic, and admixed individuals. We further show that these ancient Iceland...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2018-06, Vol.360 (6392), p.1028-1032
Main Authors: Ebenesersdóttir, S Sunna, Sandoval-Velasco, Marcela, Gunnarsdóttir, Ellen D, Jagadeesan, Anuradha, Guðmundsdóttir, Valdís B, Thordardóttir, Elísabet L, Einarsdóttir, Margrét S, Moore, Kristjan H S, Sigurðsson, Ásgeir, Magnúsdóttir, Droplaug N, Jónsson, Hákon, Snorradóttir, Steinunn, Hovig, Eivind, Møller, Pål, Kockum, Ingrid, Olsson, Tomas, Alfredsson, Lars, Hansen, Thomas F, Werge, Thomas, Cavalleri, Gianpiero L, Gilbert, Edmund, Lalueza-Fox, Carles, Walser, 3rd, Joe W, Kristjánsdóttir, Steinunn, Gopalakrishnan, Shyam, Árnadóttir, Lilja, Magnússon, Ólafur Þ, Gilbert, M Thomas P, Stefánsson, Kári, Helgason, Agnar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological Evolution
Colonization
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA, Ancient
Female
Founder Effect
Gene frequency
Gene Pool
Genetic Drift
Genetics
Genome, Human
Genomes
Genotype
Genotypes
Glaciation
Historic sites
Human populations
Humans
Iceland
Male
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Migration
Minority & ethnic groups
Native Americans
Nucleotide sequence
Phenotype
Phenotypes
Population
Population - genetics
Populations
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Description
Summary:Opportunities to directly study the founding of a human population and its subsequent evolutionary history are rare. Using genome sequence data from 27 ancient Icelanders, we demonstrate that they are a combination of Norse, Gaelic, and admixed individuals. We further show that these ancient Icelanders are markedly more similar to their source populations in Scandinavia and the British-Irish Isles than to contemporary Icelanders, who have been shaped by 1100 years of extensive genetic drift. Finally, we report evidence of unequal contributions from the ancient founders to the contemporary Icelandic gene pool. These results provide detailed insights into the making of a human population that has proven extraordinarily useful for the discovery of genotype-phenotype associations.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.aar2625