Project description
Reconstructing American Indigenous genomic history using quid DNA
Palaeogenomics provides insight into biological and sociocultural human history using ancient human genomes. However, destructive sampling of skeletal remains conflicts with national heritage conservation policies and descendant community values. The EU-funded QUIDS project will use non-destructive ancient quids, containing DNA from the chewer, oral microbiome, and meals, to reconstruct Indigenous peoples’ genomic history in the Americas. Quid DNA analysis will reveal dietary and microbiome shifts, pathogen prevalence, and their interplay without harming skeletal remains, which are scarce in the Americas. QUIDS will offer an innovative solution to reconstruct the history of Indigenous peoples in the Americas while respecting their cultural heritage and values.
Objective
Palaeogenomics has revolutionised our understanding of human population history at the biological and sociocultural level by analysing thousands of ancient human genomes sequenced from skeletal remains. Unfortunately, this approach requires destructive sampling of the skeletal remains, and thus can often be in conflict with the values of descendant communities and national heritage conservation policies. Although alternative sources of ancient human DNA have been sought, their utilisation requires prohibitive sequencing data volumes, or they are rare in the archaeological record, thus precluding large-scale studies. To circumvent these limitations, we will use a novel DNA source: ancient quids. Quids are wads of masticated plant fibres recovered from archaeological sites. Analogous to a buccal swab, an ancient quid contains traces of the chewer's, their oral microbiome's and the chewer's meals' DNA, as well as that of the plants used for its elaboration. Therefore, quid DNA can be used to simultaneously track human population history, dietary and microbiome shifts, pathogen prevalence and their interplay through time.
We will use quid DNA to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the Indigenous peoples from the Americas, a continent where human evolutionary history is understudied, skeletal remains are rare, and the destructive sampling of such remains is often limited. In contrast to skeletal remains, quids are abundant in the American archaeological record and span from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene and recent centuries. Through ancient quid DNA, we will reconstruct the genomic history of Indigenous Americans, their past lifeways and subsistence strategies, their health, and how these influenced each other throughout the three major historical transitions in the continent: the initial rapid peopling by hunter-gatherers, the emergence of complex agricultural societies and their demise during European colonisation.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- humanitieshistory and archaeologyhistory
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsDNA
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsgenomes
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiology
You need to log in or register to use this function
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
1165 Kobenhavn
Denmark