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Ancient DNA reveals the prehistory of the Uralic and Yeniseian peoples Full article

Journal Nature
ISSN: 0028-0836 , E-ISSN: 1476-4687
Output data Year: 2025, Number: 644, Pages: 122-132 Pages count : 11 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09189-3
Authors Zeng Tian Chen 1 , Vyazov Leonid 2,3 , Kim Alexander 4,5 , Flegontov Pavel 6,7,8 , Sirak Kendra 9,7 , Maier Robert 9,7 , Lazaridis Iosif 9,7 , Akbari Ali 9,7 , Frachetti Michael 10,11 , Tishkin Alexey A 12 , Ryabogina Natalia E 13 , Agapov Sergey A 14 , Agapov Danila S 14 , Alekseev Anatoliy N 15 , Boeskorov Gennady G 16 , Derevianko Anatoly P 17 , Dyakonov Viktor M 17 , Enshin Dmitry N 18 , Fribus Alexey V 19 , Frolov Yaroslav V 12 , Grushin Sergey P 12 , Khokhlov Alexander A 20 , Kiryushin Kirill Yu 21 , Kiryushin Yurii F 12 , Kitov Egor P 22 , Kosintsev Pavel 23,24 , Kovtun Igor V 25 , Makarov Nikolai P 26 , Morozov Viktor V 27 , Nikolaev Egor N 15 , Rykun Marina P 28 , Savenkova Tatyana M 29 , Shchelchkova Marina V 30 , Shirokov Vladimir 31 , Skochina Svetlana N 18 , Sherstobitova Olga S 32 , Slepchenko Sergey M 18 , Solodovnikov Konstantin N 18 , Solovyova Elena N 33,17 , Stepanov Aleksandr D 17 , Timoshchenko Aleksei A 17 , Vdovin Aleksandr S 26 , Vybornov Anton V 17 , Balanovska Elena V 34 , Dryomov Stanislav 35 , Hellenthal Garrett 36 , Kidd Kenneth 37 , Krause Johannes 38 , Starikovskaya Elena 35 , Sukernik Rem 35 , Tatarinova Tatiana 39 , Thomas Mark G 36 , Zhabagin Maxat 40,41 , Callan Kim 9,42 , Cheronet Olivia 43,44 , Fernandes Daniel 45,44 , Keating Denise 46 , Candilio Francesca 47 , Iliev Lora 9,42 , Kearns Aisling 9,7 , Özdoğan Kadir Toykan 43,48 , Mah Matthew 49,9,42 , Micco Adam 9,42 , Michel Megan 9,7,42 , Olalde Iñigo 50,7,51 , Zalzala Fatma 9,42 , Mallick Swapan 49,9,7,42 , Rohland Nadin 49,9,7 , Pinhasi Ron 52,53 , Narasimhan Vagheesh M 54,55 , Reich David 56,57,58,59
Affiliations
1 Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. tianchen_zeng@g.harvard.edu.
2 Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic. l.a.vyazov@gmail.com.
3 Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. l.a.vyazov@gmail.com.
4 Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. akim@fas.harvard.edu.
5 Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. akim@fas.harvard.edu.
6 Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic.
7 Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
8 Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre CAS, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
9 Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
10 Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA.
11 Spatial Analysis, Interpretation, and Exploration Laboratory, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
12 Department of Archaeology, Ethnography and Museology, Altai State University, Barnaul, Russia.
13 Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
14 Historical, Ecological and Cultural Association 'Povolzhye', Samara, Russia.
15 Institute of Studies the Humanities and Problems of Indigenous People of the North, FIC Yakutsk Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk, Russia.
16 Diamond and Precious Metals Geology Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk, Russia.
17 Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia.
18 Tyumen Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Problems of Northern Development, Tyumen, Russia.
19 Department of Archaeology of Central Asia and the Caucasus, Institute for the History of Material Culture of Russian Academy of Science, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
20 Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education, Samara, Russia.
21 Department of Recreational Geography, Service, Tourism and Hospitality, Institute of Geography, Altai State University, Barnaul, Russia.
22 Center of Human Ecology, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia.
23 Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg, Russia.
24 Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia.
25 Independent Researcher, Kemerovo, Russia.
26 Krasnoyarsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
27 LLC 'Archaeology of the East European Plain', Moscow, Russia.
28 National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia.
29 V. F. Voino-Yasenetsky Krasnoyarsk State Medical University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
30 Institute of Natural Sciences, M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Russia.
31 Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg, Russia.
32 Siberian State University of Physical Education and Sport, Omsk, Russia.
33 Arctic Research Center of Sakha Republic, Yakutia, Russia.
34 Human Population Genetics Laboratory, Research Center for Medical Genetics, Moscow, Russia.
35 Laboratory of Human Molecular Genetics, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SBRAS), Novosibirsk, Russia.
36 Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London Genetics Institute (UGI), University College London, London, UK.
37 Department of Genetics, Yale Medical School, New Haven, CT, USA.
38 Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
39 Department of Biology, University of La Verne, La Verne, CA, USA.
40 Laboratory of Archaeogenetics, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan.
41 Laboratory of Human Genetics, National Center for Biotechnology, Astana, Kazakhstan.
42 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
43 Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
44 Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
45 CIAS, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
46 School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
47 Servizio di Bioarcheologia, Museo delle Civiltà, Rome, Italy.
48 Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.
49 Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
50 BIOMICs Research Group, Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.
51 Ikerbasque-Basque Foundation of Science, Bilbao, Spain.
52 Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. ron.pinhasi@univie.ac.at.
53 Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. ron.pinhasi@univie.ac.at.
54 Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA. vagheesh@utexas.edu.
55 Department of Statistics and Data Science, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA. vagheesh@utexas.edu.
56 Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA. reich@genetics.med.harvard.edu.
57 Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. reich@genetics.med.harvard.edu.
58 Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. reich@genetics.med.harvard.edu.
59 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. reich@genetics.med.harvard.edu.

Funding (1)

1 FWZG-2025-0010

Abstract: The North Eurasian forest and forest-steppe zones have sustained millennia of sociocultural connections among northern peoples, but much of their history is poorly understood. In particular, the genomic formation of populations that speak Uralic and Yeniseian languages today is unknown. Here, by generating genome-wide data for 180 ancient individuals spanning this region, we show that the Early-to-Mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers harboured a continuous gradient of ancestry from fully European-related in the Baltic, to fully East Asian-related in the Transbaikal. Contemporaneous groups in Northeast Siberia were off-gradient and descended from a population that was the primary source for Native Americans, which then mixed with populations of Inland East Asia and the Amur River Basin to produce two populations whose expansion coincided with the collapse of pre-Bronze Age population structure. Ancestry from the first population, Cis-Baikal Late Neolithic– Bronze Age (Cisbaikal_LNBA), is associated with Yeniseian-speaking groups and those that admixed with them, and ancestry from the second, Yakutia Late Neolithic–Bronze Age (Yakutia_LNBA), is associated with migrations of prehistoric Uralic speakers. We show that Yakutia_LNBA first dispersed westwards from the Lena River Basin around 4,000 years ago into the Altai-Sayan region and into West Siberian communities associated with Seima-Turbino metallurgy—a suite of advanced bronze casting techniques that expanded explosively from the Altai1. The 16 Seima-Turbino period individuals were diverse in their ancestry, also harbouring DNA from Indo-Iranian-associated pastoralists and from a range of hunter-gatherer groups. Thus, both cultural transmission and migration were key to the Seima-Turbino phenomenon, which was involved in the initial spread of early Uralic-speaking communities.
Cite: Zeng T.C. , Vyazov L. , Kim A. , Flegontov P. , Sirak K. , Maier R. , Lazaridis I. , Akbari A. , Frachetti M. , Tishkin A.A. , Ryabogina N.E. , Agapov S.A. , Agapov D.S. , Alekseev A.N. , Boeskorov G.G. , Derevianko A.P. , Dyakonov V.M. , Enshin D.N. , Fribus A.V. , Frolov Y.V. , Grushin S.P. , Khokhlov A.A. , Kiryushin K.Y. , Kiryushin Y.F. , Kitov E.P. , Kosintsev P. , Kovtun I.V. , Makarov N.P. , Morozov V.V. , Nikolaev E.N. , Rykun M.P. , Savenkova T.M. , Shchelchkova M.V. , Shirokov V. , Skochina S.N. , Sherstobitova O.S. , Slepchenko S.M. , Solodovnikov K.N. , Solovyova E.N. , Stepanov A.D. , Timoshchenko A.A. , Vdovin A.S. , Vybornov A.V. , Balanovska E.V. , Dryomov S. , Hellenthal G. , Kidd K. , Krause J. , Starikovskaya E. , Sukernik R. , Tatarinova T. , Thomas M.G. , Zhabagin M. , Callan K. , Cheronet O. , Fernandes D. , Keating D. , Candilio F. , Iliev L. , Kearns A. , Özdoğan K.T. , Mah M. , Micco A. , Michel M. , Olalde I. , Zalzala F. , Mallick S. , Rohland N. , Pinhasi R. , Narasimhan V.M. , Reich D.
Ancient DNA reveals the prehistory of the Uralic and Yeniseian peoples
Nature. 2025. N644. P.122-132. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09189-3 WOS Scopus OpenAlex
Dates:
Submitted: Sep 12, 2023
Accepted: May 23, 2025
Published online: Jul 2, 2025
Published print: Aug 7, 2025
Identifiers:
Web of science: WOS:001521966500001
Scopus: 2-s2.0-105009620899
OpenAlex: W4411932268
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OpenAlex 3
Scopus 4
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