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. 2022 Sep 1;39(9):msac179.
doi: 10.1093/molbev/msac179.

The Genetic Echo of the Tarim Mummies in Modern Central Asians

Shan-Shan Dai  1   2 , Xierzhatijiang Sulaiman  1   3 , Jainagul Isakova  4 , Wei-Fang Xu  5 , Najmudinov Tojiddin Abdulloevich  6 , Manilova Elena Afanasevna  6 , Khudoidodov Behruz Ibrohimovich  6 , Xi Chen  7   8 , Wei-Kang Yang  8 , Ming-Shan Wang  9 , Quan-Kuan Shen  1   2 , Xing-Yan Yang  10   11 , Yong-Gang Yao  12   13   2 , Almaz A Aldashev  4 , Abdusattor Saidov  6 , Wei Chen  14   15 , Lu-Feng Cheng  3 , Min-Sheng Peng  1   13   2 , Ya-Ping Zhang  1   13   2   16
Affiliations

The Genetic Echo of the Tarim Mummies in Modern Central Asians

Shan-Shan Dai et al. Mol Biol Evol. .

Abstract

The diversity of Central Asians has been shaped by multiple migrations and cultural diffusion. Although ancient DNA studies have revealed the demographic changes of the Central Asian since the Bronze Age, the contribution of the ancient populations to the modern Central Asian remains opaque. Herein, we performed high-coverage sequencing of 131 whole genomes of Indo-European-speaking Tajik and Turkic-speaking Kyrgyz populations to explore their genomic diversity and admixture history. By integrating the ancient DNA data, we revealed more details of the origins and admixture history of Central Asians. We found that the major ancestry of present-day Tajik populations can be traced back to the admixture of the Bronze Age Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex and Andronovo-related populations. Highland Tajik populations further received additional gene flow from the Tarim mummies, an isolated ancient North Eurasian-related population. The West Eurasian ancestry of Kyrgyz is mainly derived from Historical Era populations in Xinjiang of China. Furthermore, the recent admixture signals detected in both Tajik and Kyrgyz are ascribed to the expansions of Eastern Steppe nomadic pastoralists during the Historical Era.

Keywords: Central Asia; Kyrgyz; Steppe; Tajik; Tarim; admixture; genome.

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Figures

<sc>Fig</sc>. 1.
Fig. 1.
Sample locations of the 252 modern samples used for joint SNP genotyping. A total of 252 individuals are included. The populations sequenced in this study are including: Kyrgyz of Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz of China, Sarikoli Tajik, Wakhi Tajik, and Dushanbe Tajik. The Wakhi Tajiks are immigrants from Wakhan Corridor since late 19th and early 20th Century. The detailed information is described in Table 1. The map was obtained from the Natural Earth public domain map data set (https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-raster-data/10m-cross-blend-hypso/).
<sc>Fig</sc>. 2.
Fig. 2.
Principal component analysis of the modern and ancient Eurasians. A total of 1,372 ancient individuals are projected onto the first two principal components defined by modern Eurasian populations. (A) Mesolithic to Eneolithic Age, (B) Pre-Bronze to Bronze Age, (C) Iron Age and (D) Historical Era individuals were shown.
<sc>Fig</sc>. 3.
Fig. 3.
Admixture ancestry components (K = 8) of Kyrgyz, Tajik, other modern Central Asians, and ancient Eurasian populations. (A) Paleolithic to Eneolithic Age populations. (B) Bronze Age populations.The Anatolian_N (purple)- and the Iran_GanjDareh_N (pink)-related ancestry components coexist in the BMAC individuals, reflecting the admixture origin of BMAC (Narasimhan et al. 2019). Similarly, the ancient Steppe populations are indicated by the admixture of the EEHG (dark blue and sky blue)- and CHG (pink, purple, and dark blue)-related ancestry components (de Barros Damgaard et al. 2018). The Tarim_EMBA1 had minor component (red) prevalent in the Native American populations (supplementary fig. S5, Supplementary Material online), which is in agreement with the ANE ancestry of the Tarim_EMBA1 (Zhang et al. 2021). (C) Iron Age populations. (D) Modern populations.
<sc>Fig</sc>. 4.
Fig. 4.
Inferred qpAdm models and admixture history of the Sarikoli Tajik and Pamiri Tajik. (A) Feasible qpAdm proximal models for four Tajik, Kyrgyz, and other modern and ancient populations. The Iron Age Turkmenistan_IA can be modeled as a mixture of Andronovo and BMAC. The Wakhi Tajik and Dushanbe Tajik modeled with Turkmenistan_IA and other populations reflect their common ancestries from Andronovo and BMAC. (B) Schematic map showing the possible admixture model of Sarikoli Tajik and Pamiri Tajik. The time in parentheses represent a range. Arrows in different colors indicate ancestral sources and directions of the gene flows. The map was obtained from the Natural Earth public domain map data set (https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-raster-data/10m-cross-blend-hypso/).
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