A collaborative research group consisting of 7 members from 11 domestic research institutes such as the National Science Museum, the National Institute of Genetics, and the University of Tokyo has succeeded in decoding the entire genome of Jomon people excavated on Rebun Island in Hokkaido.A mutation in a gene that makes it easier to break down fat, similar to the inhabitants of the Arctic Circle, was found, supporting the lifestyle of hunting sea lions and the like.Decoding the entire genome is likely to accelerate research into the origin of the Japanese.
According to the National Museum of Nature and Science, the research group extracted DNA from the molars of a female about 3,800 years ago excavated from the Funato site on Rebun Island and analyzed it with high accuracy.As a result, this woman had the characteristic of facilitating metabolism of a high-fat diet, such as not breaking her stomach even if she had a greasy diet.
This feature is rarely seen in modern Japanese who have stopped hunting, but it is possessed by about 7% of the Arctic residents who still live hunting, such as the Inuit.It is believed that the group, including this woman, was hunting on Rebun Island, as the bones of marine mammals were found in the ruins.
It was also found that the woman had brown eyes and curly hair.It is estimated that the skin color was dark.In terms of genes, it is close to the indigenous people of South Korea and Taiwan, and Filipinos.The research group considers it to be the oldest divergent group in the East Eurasian population.
The Jomon people are a hunting people of the Jomon period that lasted from 1 years ago to 6,000 years ago in the Japanese archipelago.The gene is transmitted to the modern Japanese, but there are both Southeast Asian and Northeast Asian origin theories.
Paper information:[Anthropological Science] Late Jomon male and female genome sequences from the Funadomari site in Hokkaido, Japan
