A partial nuclear genome of the Jomons who lived 3000 years ago in Fukushima, Japan

The Jomon period of the Japanese Archipelago, characterized by cord-marked ‘jomon’ potteries, has yielded abundant human skeletal remains. However, the genetic origins of the Jomon people and their relationships with modern populations have not been clarified. We determined a total of 115 million base pair nuclear genome sequences from two Jomon individuals (male and female each) from the Sanganji Shell Mound (dated 3000 years before present) with the Jomon-characteristic mitochondrial DNA haplogroup N9b, and compared these nuclear genome sequences with those of worldwide populations. We found that the Jomon population lineage is best considered to have diverged before diversification of present-day East Eurasian populations, with no evidence of gene flow events between the Jomon and other continental populations. This suggests that the Sanganji Jomon people descended from an early phase of population dispersals in East Asia. We also estimated that the modern mainland Japanese inherited <20% of Jomon peoples’ genomes. Our findings, based on the first analysis of Jomon nuclear genome sequence data, firmly demonstrate that the modern mainland Japanese resulted from genetic admixture of the indigenous Jomon people and later migrants

[Article] Origin and Development of Yayoi People from the Viewpoint of Archaeological Data and DNA Analysis

本稿は，弥生時代の人骨と，韓半島新石器時代，三国時代の人骨のDNA分析結果が，弥生時代人の成立と展開に関して与える影響について考古学的に考察したものである。 筆者らは，2018年度以来，新学術領域研究，通称「ヤポネシアゲノム」によって，上記の人骨を対象に炭素14年代測定，食性分析，DNA分析を行ってきた。 その結果，日本では，前8世紀の支石墓に葬られた在来系の人びと，前6世紀の伊勢湾沿岸で水田稲作を始めた渡来系の人びと，紀元前後の西北九州弥生人のDNAを，韓半島では約6,300年前の前期新石器時代と5～7世紀の三国時代の人びとのDNAを得ることができた。これらのDNAが弥生時代研究に与える5つの問題について考えた。 ①　縄文人や韓半島の新石器時代人は，後期旧石器時代の古代東アジア沿岸集団に特有なDNAをもっている。しかし6300年ほど前の韓半島の新石器時代人の中には，すでに渡来系弥生人と類似するDNAをもっている人びとがいたことを確認した。 ②　渡来系弥生人は，縄文人と韓半島南部の人びととの混血によって生まれたと考えてきた。しかし，韓半島南部の新石器時代人の子孫と縄文人が交わっても，弥生前期末以降の渡来系弥生人が成立しない場合もあることが明らかとなった。 ③　前6世紀の伊勢湾沿岸地域に，渡来系弥生人のDNAをもつ水田稲作民を確認した。現状でもっとも古い例である。この調査結果は，前6世紀の伊勢湾沿岸地域以西の西日本にはすでに渡来系弥生人が広範囲に存在していたことを予想させる。西日本の渡来系弥生人の出自を検討した。 ④　弥生前期には遠賀川系や突帯文土器系など系譜を異にする甕形土器があるが，使用者のDNAが異なっていた可能性が出てきた。土器の系譜とDNAとの関連について考える。 ⑤　西北九州弥生人のなかに，縄文人と渡来系弥生人が混血した人と混血していない人の二者がいること，九州中部や南部にも混血した人が存在することがわかった。混血して生まれた西北九州弥生人は，いつごろ，どのような地域で誕生したのか考える。This paper focus on the formation and development of Yayoi people by the effects of DNA analysis of human bones excavated at the Yayoi site and the Neolithic, Three Kingdoms periods in the Korean Peninsula. Since 2018, we have been conducting carbon-14 dating, food habit analysis, and DNA analysis on the above human bones by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research Innovative Areas, commonly known as the "Yaponesians Genome". As a result, in Japan, the DNA of the native people buried in the dolmens in the 8th century BC, the Yayoi migrants who started paddy rice cultivation along the coast of Isewan in the second half of 6th century BC, and the Yayoi people in the northwestern Kyushu around AD. On the Korean Peninsula, we were able to obtain the DNA of people from the early Neolithic period in about 6,300 years ago and the Three Kingdoms periods in about the 5th to 7th centuries. We considered five problems that these DNA’s give to Yayoi period research. (1) It was confirmed that there were Neolithic people on the Korean Peninsula with DNA similar to the Yayoi migrants in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula about 6,300 years ago. This fact means that on the Korean Peninsula, a mixture of ancient East Asian coastal populations and Neolithic people within the continent began more than 3,000 years before the Japanese archipelago. (2) It has been thought that the Yayoi migrants were born from a mixed race of Jomon people and people in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. However, we have not yet found a candidate people with DNA that is a partner of the Jomon people's mixed race among the Neolithic and Three Kingdoms people in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. (3) In the coastal area of Ise Bay in the 6th century BC, we confirmed paddy rice farmers with the DNA of the Yayoi migrants. This is the oldest example at present. The results of this survey suggest that there were already a wide range of the Yayoi migrants in western Japan in the west of the coastal area of Ise Bay. We examined the origins of the Yayoi migrants in western Japan. (4) In the early Yayoi period, there were pot-shaped pottery with different genealogy such as the Ongagawa pottery and the ridge-shaped pottery, but it is possible that the DNA of the user was different. We consider the relationship between the genealogy of earthenware and DNA. (5) We have that there are two type people in the northwestern Kyushu, one who has mixed blood with the Jomon people and the Yayoi migrants, and one who does not have mixed blood, and there are also people who have mixed blood in central and southern Kyushu. Northwestern Kyushu people in the Yayoi period who were born as a mixed race, We think about when and in what area they were born.departmental bulletin pape

[Report on Investigation and Research Activity] Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of Archaeological Human Bones Stored by School of Medicine, Kumamoto University

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Cranio-morphometric and aDNA corroboration of the Austronesian dispersal model in ancient Island Southeast Asia: Support from Gua Harimau, Indonesia

The Austronesian language is spread from Madagascar in the west, Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) in the east (e.g. the Philippines and Indonesian archipelagoes) and throughout the Pacific, as far east as Easter Island. While it seems clear that the remote ancestors of Austronesian speakers originated in Southern China, and migrated to Taiwan with the development of rice farming by c. 5500 BP and onto the northern Philippines by c. 4000 BP (the Austronesian Dispersal Hypothesis or ADH), we know very little about the origins and emergence of Austronesian speakers in the Indonesian Archipelago. Using a combination of cranial morphometric and ancient mtDNA analyses on a new dataset from Gua Hairmau, that spans the pre-Neolithic through to Metal Period (5712—5591cal BP to 1864—1719 cal BP), we rigorously test the validity of the ADH in ISEA. A morphometric analysis of 23 adult male crania, using 16 of Martin’s standard measurements, was carried out with results compared to an East and Southeast Asian dataset of 30 sample populations spanning the Late Pleistocene through to Metal Period, in addition to 39 modern samples from East and Southeast Asia, near Oceania and Australia. Further, 20 samples were analyzed for ancient mtDNA and assigned to identified haplogroups. We demonstrate that the archaeological human remains from Gua Harimau cave, Sumatra, Indonesia provide clear evidence for at least two (cranio-morphometrically defined) and perhaps even three (in the context of the ancient mtDNA results) distinct populations from two separate time periods. The results of these analyses provide substantive support for the ADH model in explaining the origins and population history of ISEA peoples.This study was supported in part by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. 23247040 and No. 16H02527 to HM and Australian Research Council Grant No. FT120100299 to MFO and DP150104458 to HCH

[Report on Investigation and Research Activity] Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of Jomon, Yayoi, and Kofun Human Remains Excavated in Hyogo Pref.

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[Report on Investigation and Research Activity] Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of Human Bones Excavated from Ancient Tombs in Tottori Prefecture I : Koshikisan Kofuns, Kusaka Kofuns, Mukoubara Kofuns

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High growing ability of Vibrio vulnificus biotype 1 is essential for production of a toxic metalloprotease causing systemic diseases in humans

Vibrio vulnificus biotype 1, a causative agent of fatal septicemia or wound infection in humans, is known to produce a toxic metalloprotease as an important virulence determinant. V. vulnificus biotype 2 (serovar E), a primary eel pathogen, was found to elaborate an extracellular metalloprotease that was indistinguishable from that of biotype 1. The potential of V. vulnificus biotype 1 for production of the metalloprotease was compared with biotype 2 and other human non-pathogenic Vibrio species (Vibrio anguillarum and Vibrio proteolyticus). When cultivated at 25degreesC in tryptone-yeast extract broth supplemented with 0.9% NaCl, all bacteria multiplied sufficiently and secreted significant amounts of the metalloprotease. However, at 37degreesC with 0.9% NaCl, V. anguillarum neither grew nor produced the metalloprotease. In human serum, only V. vulnificus biotype 1 revealed a steady multiplication accompanied with production of the extracellular metalloprotease. This prominent ability of biotype 1 in growth and protease production may contribute to cause serious systemic diseases in humans.</p

Triangulation supports agricultural spread of the Transeurasian languages

The origin and early dispersal of speakers of Transeurasian languages, i.e., Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic, is among the most disputed issues of Eurasian population history. A key problem is the relationship between linguistic dispersals, agricultural expansions and population movements. Here we address this question through ‘triangulating’ genetics, archaeology and linguistics in a unified perspective. We report new, wide-ranging datasets from these disciplines, including the most comprehensive Transeurasian agropastoral and basic vocabulary presented to date, an archaeological database of 255 Neolithic and Bronze Age sites from Northeast Asia, and the first collection of ancient genomes from Korea, the Ryukyu islands and early cereal farmers in Japan, complementing previously published genomes from East Asia. Challenging the traditional ‘Pastoralist Hypothesis’, we show that the common ancestry and primary dispersals of Transeurasian languages can be traced back to the first farmers moving across Northeast Asia from the Early Neolithic onwards, but that this shared heritage has been masked by extensive cultural interaction since the Bronze Age. As well as marking significant progress in the three individual disciplines, by combining their converging evidence, we show that the early spread of Transeurasian speakers was driven by agriculture.Introduction Linguistics Archaeology Genetics Discussion: Triangulation Method

[Report on Investigation and Research Activity] Elucidating the History of Yaponesian Based on Archaeological Data : Researches in FY 2021 (2)

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