Research groups such as Toho University and Graduate University for Advanced Studies have conducted a comparative analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is a combination of ancient human bones excavated from archaeological sites of the Old Stone Age, Jomon Period, and Yayoi Period and the Japanese archipelago population.For the first time, we have clarified the genetic relationship of the Japanese archipelago population from the past to the present.The group also includes the Agricultural and Food Industry Technology Research Organization, the National Science Museum, Kokugakuin University, the University of Tokyo, the Anthropology Research Organization, Kyoto University, Kansai Medical University, and Hangzhou Normal University.
Studies suggest that the modern Japanese archipelago population is a mixture of the Japanese archipelago population during the Jomon period and the migrant population that brought rice culture from the continent at the beginning of the Yayoi period.However, the ancient DNA research of Paleolithic human bones has not progressed, and the genetic connection between the Japanese archipelago population of the Paleolithic period and the population after Jomon was unknown.
The research group extracted DNA from the Paleolithic Minatogawa No. 16,000 human bone excavated from the Minatogawa Fisher site (Okinawa Prefecture), and determined the base sequence of the total length of mtDNA (about 2,000 base pairs) using a next-generation sequencer.We analyzed the newly determined mtDNA of human bones from the Jomon and Yayoi periods and the mtDNA of about XNUMX people from the modern Japanese archipelago.
As a result, it was found that the Minatogawa No. 1 human skeleton is not a direct ancestor of the Jomon, Yayoi, and modern populations, but the mtDNA of the Minatogawa No. XNUMX human bone is included in or very close to the ancestral group of the modern Japanese archipelago population.This indicates that in the Japanese archipelago, there is a genetic continuity in the human population from the Paleolithic to the present.In addition, it was found that the population (effective population size) increased several times in the past, suggesting the effects of rice cultivation and continental migration.
In the future, it is expected that the position of Paleolithic people in the formation of the Japanese archipelago will be elucidated by advancing the nuclear DNA analysis of the Minatogawa No. 1 human bone.
Paper information:[Scientific Reports] Population dynamics in the Japanese Archipelago since the Pleistocene revealed by the complete mitochondrial genome sequences
