Dynamic human admixture histories over the past ~1300 years at the northern Himalayan frontier
Archaeological and paleogenomic evidence from the Tibetan Plateau and high-altitude Central Himalayas suggest biocultural connections with each other and with lowland East, Central, and South Asia. However, genetic histories at the northern frontier of the Indian Himalayas, which is geographically more proximal to Central and lowland South Asia, remain underexplored. We analyzed genome-wide data from 7 ancient (~2300 to 100 years old) and 10 present-day individuals from the northern Indian Himalayas and one ~3370-year-old individual from the Central Himalayas in Nepal. Ancient and present-day individuals from the northern Himalayas predominantly have Tibetan-related genetic ancestry, likely the source of high-altitude adaptive variants in these individuals, with substantial Steppe-related genetic ancestry that is observed in all individuals dating between ~1300 years and present day. In addition, some present-day individuals have lowland South Asian admixture. Our analyses reveal a dynamic interplay between genetic admixture and continuity in the northern Himalayas.
Authors
- Choongwon Jeong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3049-2352)
- Vivaswat Shastry (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7294-5607)
- Constanza de la Fuente Castro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2857-3615)
- Nagarjuna Pasupuleti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1886-4400)
- Christina Warinner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4528-5877)
- Niraj Rai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1251-9390)
- Juhyeon Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7008-4471)
- Mark Aldenderfer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7033-4319)
- Maanasa Raghavan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1997-0739)
- Anna Di Rienzo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8982-9098)
- David Witonsky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3274-9003)
- Nikola Sander (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7176-6594)
- Ekta Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5572-2524)
- Amit Kaushik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8742-5404)
- Esha Bandyopadhyay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8080-2825)
- Hannah M. Moots (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6637-6321)
- Bhavna Ahlawat
- J. Víctor Moreno-Mayar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7712-4496)
- Veena Mushrif‐Tripathy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4749-1316)
- Rakesh Chandra Bhatt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5738-1487)
- R. K. Ganjoo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6256-2314)
- Aparna Dwivedi
- Sachin Kumar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5249-305X)
- Aman Sharma
- Jose A. Urban Aragon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2350-2244)
- Vinod Nautiyal
- Seiroku Ota
- Nagendra Singh Rawat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7833-0382)
- Hitendra Singh Chauhan
- Tanzin Angmo
- Kavita Bist Mengwal
- Tsering Norbu
Institutions
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Zoological Survey of India (IN)
- Harvard University (US)
- Seoul National University (KR)
- University of Jammu (IN)
- Forest Survey of India (IN)
- University of California, Merced (US)
- Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University (IN)
- Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (IN)
- Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute (IN)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Government of Himachal Pradesh (IN)
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE)
- Shoolini University (IN)
- Instituto de Neurociencia Biomédica (CL)
- Defence Electronics Application Laboratory (IN)
- Graphic Era University (IN)
- University of Chile (CL)
- Himachal Pradesh University (IN)
- Dehradun Institute of Technology University (IN)
- Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2025-10-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adu9625
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Forensic and Genetic Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.63