A genomic history of Aboriginal Australia

The population history of Aboriginal Australians remains largely uncharacterized. Here we generate high-coverage genomes for 83 Aboriginal Australians (speakers of Pama–Nyungan languages) and 25 Papuans from the New Guinea Highlands. We find that Papuan and Aboriginal Australian ancestors diversified 25–40 thousand years ago (kya), suggesting pre-Holocene population structure in the ancient continent of Sahul (Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania). However, all of the studied Aboriginal Australians descend from a single founding population that differentiated ~10–32 kya. We infer a population expansion in northeast Australia during the Holocene epoch (past 10,000 years) associated with limited gene flow from this region to the rest of Australia, consistent with the spread of the Pama–Nyungan languages. We estimate that Aboriginal Australians and Papuans diverged from Eurasians 51–72 kya, following a single out-of-Africa dispersal, and subsequently admixed with archaic populations. Finally, we report evidence of selection in Aboriginal Australians potentially associated with living in the desert.

Søren Brunak | Anders Eriksson | Thomas Mailund | Laurent Excoffier | Richard Durbin | David M. Lambert | Anders Albrechtsen | Claire Bowern | Martin Sikora | Simon Rasmussen | Andrea Manica | Joe Dortch | Anders Bergström | José Víctor Moreno-Mayar | Eske Willerslev | Matthew Leavesley | Mark G. Thomas | Rasmus Nielsen | Mikkel H. Schierup | Fernando Racimo | Robert A. Foley | Chiara Barbieri | Stephan Schiffels | Yali Xue | Chris Tyler-Smith | Oscar Lao | Michael C. Westaway | Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas | Ida Moltke | Thorfinn Korneliussen | Alexander J. Mentzer | Marta Mirazón Lahr | Jade Yu Cheng | Pascale Gerbault | Craig Muller | Vitor C. Sousa | Isabel Alves | Georgios Athanasiadis | Jacob E. Crawford | Tim H. Heupink | Enrico Macholdt | Stephan Peischl | Sankar Subramanian | Joanne L. Wright | Isabelle Dupanloup | Ashot Margaryan | Irina Pugach | Ivan P. Levkivskyi | Shengyu Ni | Farhang A. Aghakhanian | Nicolas Brucato | Paula F. Campos | Warren Clark | Sturla Ellingvåg | Gudjugudju Fourmile | Darren Injie | George Koki | Betty Logan | Aubrey Lynch | Elizabeth A. Matisoo-Smith | Peter J. McAllister | Mait Metspalu | Andrea B. Migliano | Les Murgha | Maude E. Phipps | William Pomat | Doc Reynolds | Francois-Xavier Ricaut | Peter Siba | Thomas Wales | Colleen Ma'run Wall | Stephen J. Oppenheimer | Jeffrey D. Wall | Mark Stoneking | Manjinder S. Sandhu | R. Durbin | C. Tyler-Smith | L. Excoffier | S. Rasmussen | S. Brunak | R. Nielsen | J. Wall | M. Stoneking | Fernando Racimo | E. Matisoo-Smith | Mark George Thomas | A. Eriksson | A. Manica | T. Korneliussen | Yali Xue | M. Sandhu | M. Metspalu | I. Dupanloup | R. Foley | T. Mailund | M. Schierup | A. Mentzer | M. Lahr | S. Subramanian | Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas | Craig Muller | V. Sousa | O. Lao | I. Alves | A. Bergström | G. Athanasiadis | J. Cheng | J. Crawford | T. Heupink | Enrico Macholdt | S. Peischl | S. Schiffels | A. Albrechtsen | Chiara Barbieri | A. Margaryan | I. Moltke | Irina Pugach | I. Levkivskyi | J. V. Moreno-Mayar | Shengyu Ni | M. Sikora | Farhang A. Aghakhanian | N. Brucato | P. Campos | Warren Clark | Sturla Ellingvåg | G. Fourmile | P. Gerbault | Darren Injie | G. Koki | M. Leavesley | Betty Logan | Aubrey Lynch | P. McAllister | A. Migliano | Les Murgha | M. Phipps | W. Pomat | Doc Reynolds | F. Ricaut | P. Siba | Thomas Wales | C. Wall | S. Oppenheimer | J. Dortch | Claire Bowern | D. Lambert | E. Willerslev | Claire Bowern | F. Racimo | Anders Bergström | Nicolas Brucato | Ida Moltke | Simon Rasmussen | Sankar Subramanian | Stephan Peischl

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