Genome Analysis of Paleolithic people

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K15884
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 45050:Physical anthropology-related
• Research Institution: Toho University
• Principal Investigator: MIZUNO Fuzuki 東邦大学, 医学部, 講師 (50735496)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 列島日本人 / 古代ゲノム / 旧石器時代 / 性別判定

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We sequenced the complete mitochondrial genomes of Paleolithic, Initial and Early Jomon individuals. All Jomon mitochondrial DNA sequences obtained were included in the modern Japanese sequence cluster, and continuity was observed between Jomon and modern Japanese. On the other hand, there were no modern humans with direct ancestors from the Minatogawa 1, and no linear continuity from Minatogawa 1 to modern Japanese was observed. In addition, the DNA preservation of Minatogawa 1 was more severe than expected, and the amount of nuclear genome data sufficient for phylogenetic analysis was not obtained, but more than a certain amount of next-generation sequencing and lead sequences were obtained. Therefore, we developed a new method for sex determination with high accuracy, and obtained a result that Minatogawa 1 was male.

Free Research Field

古代ゲノム

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

出アフリカを果たした現代型ホモサピエンスが日本列島に到達したのは数万年前の後期旧石器時代であるが、酸性土壌が多い日本列島では骨などが残り難いだけでなく、人骨に残されたＤＮＡへのダメージも大きい。このため、日本列島旧石器時代人骨のゲノム情報は皆無であったが、本研究によって、そのミトコンドリアゲノムの全長配列解読が初めて成し遂げられた。また、一定量以上の次世代シーケンス・リード配列が得られたことで、ゲノム情報に基づく性別判定も成し遂げられた。これは、“最初の列島日本人”である旧石器時代人の全ゲノム解明への第一歩となる成果であり、列島日本人を体系的に理解するための始点に到達した学術的意義は大きい。