Paths and timings of the peopling of Polynesia inferred from genomic networks

Alexander G Ioannidis; Javier Blanco-Portillo; Karla Sandoval; Erika Hagelberg; Carmina Barberena-Jonas; Adrian V S Hill; Juan Esteban Rodríguez-Rodríguez; Keolu Fox; Kathryn Robson; Sonia Haoa-Cardinali; Consuelo D Quinto-Cortés; Juan Francisco Miquel-Poblete; Kathryn Auckland; Tom Parks; Abdul Salam M Sofro; María C Ávila-Arcos; Alexandra Sockell; Julian R Homburger; Celeste Eng; Scott Huntsman; Esteban G Burchard; Christopher R Gignoux; Ricardo A Verdugo; Mauricio Moraga; Carlos D Bustamante; Alexander J Mentzer; Andrés Moreno-Estrada

doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03902-8

Paths and timings of the peopling of Polynesia inferred from genomic networks

Nature. 2021 Sep;597(7877):522-526. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03902-8. Epub 2021 Sep 22.

Authors

Alexander G Ioannidis^#^{1

2}, Javier Blanco-Portillo^#³, Karla Sandoval³, Erika Hagelberg⁴, Carmina Barberena-Jonas³, Adrian V S Hill^{5

6}, Juan Esteban Rodríguez-Rodríguez³, Keolu Fox⁷, Kathryn Robson⁸, Sonia Haoa-Cardinali⁹, Consuelo D Quinto-Cortés³, Juan Francisco Miquel-Poblete¹⁰, Kathryn Auckland⁵, Tom Parks⁵, Abdul Salam M Sofro¹¹, María C Ávila-Arcos¹², Alexandra Sockell¹³, Julian R Homburger¹³, Celeste Eng¹⁴, Scott Huntsman¹⁴, Esteban G Burchard¹⁴, Christopher R Gignoux¹⁵, Ricardo A Verdugo^{16

17}, Mauricio Moraga^{16

18}, Carlos D Bustamante^{13

19}, Alexander J Mentzer^{5

20}, Andrés Moreno-Estrada²¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. ioannidis@stanford.edu.
² National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity (LANGEBIO)-Advanced Genomics Unit (UGA), CINVESTAV, Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. ioannidis@stanford.edu.
³ National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity (LANGEBIO)-Advanced Genomics Unit (UGA), CINVESTAV, Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico.
⁴ Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁵ Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, UK.
⁶ The Jenner Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁷ Department of Anthropology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁸ MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁹ Mata Ki Te Rangi Foundation, Hanga Roa, Easter Island, Chile.
¹⁰ Departamento de Gastroenterología, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
¹¹ Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Yayasan Rumah Sakit Islam (YARSI) University, Cempaka Putih, Jakarta, Indonesia.
¹² International Laboratory for Human Genome Research (LIIGH), UNAM Juriquilla, Queretaro, Mexico.
¹³ Center for Computational, Evolutionary and Human Genomics (CEHG), Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹⁴ Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics, Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
¹⁵ Division of Biomedical Informatics and Personalized Medicine, University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA.
¹⁶ Human Genetics Program, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
¹⁷ Translational Oncology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
¹⁸ Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
¹⁹ Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
²⁰ Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
²¹ National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity (LANGEBIO)-Advanced Genomics Unit (UGA), CINVESTAV, Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. andres.moreno@cinvestav.mx.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Polynesia was settled in a series of extraordinary voyages across an ocean spanning one third of the Earth¹, but the sequences of islands settled remain unknown and their timings disputed. Currently, several centuries separate the dates suggested by different archaeological surveys^2-4. Here, using genome-wide data from merely 430 modern individuals from 21 key Pacific island populations and novel ancestry-specific computational analyses, we unravel the detailed genetic history of this vast, dispersed island network. Our reconstruction of the branching Polynesian migration sequence reveals a serial founder expansion, characterized by directional loss of variants, that originated in Samoa and spread first through the Cook Islands (Rarotonga), then to the Society (Tōtaiete mā) Islands (11th century), the western Austral (Tuha'a Pae) Islands and Tuāmotu Archipelago (12th century), and finally to the widely separated, but genetically connected, megalithic statue-building cultures of the Marquesas (Te Henua 'Enana) Islands in the north, Raivavae in the south, and Easter Island (Rapa Nui), the easternmost of the Polynesian islands, settled in approximately AD 1200 via Mangareva.

Publication types

Historical Article
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Female
Genome, Human / genetics*
Genomics*
History, Medieval
Human Migration / history*
Humans
Male
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander / genetics*
Polynesia

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding