Jaison J Sequeira

Pure bloodlines? Ancestral homelands? DNA science says no. — Harvard Gazette Geneticist explains recent analyses made possible by tech advances show human history to be one of mixing, movement, displacement.

We are migrants. We move to survive. All of us! Political boundaries do not define who we are, who we will be.

news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

Adaptations to water stress and pastoralism in the Turkana of northwest Kenya The Turkana pastoralists of Kenya inhabit arid, water-limited environments and rely largely on livestock for subsistence. Working with Turkana communities, we sequenced 367 whole genomes and identifie...

Adaptations to water stress and pastoralism in the Turkana of northwest Kenya | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Evaluating multi-ancestry genome-wide association methods: Statistical power, population structure, and practical implications Multi-ancestry GWASs enhance discovery in diverse populations, but optimal methods remain debated. Using theory, simulations, and analyses from the UK Biobank and All of Us, we show that pooled analys...

Multi-ancestry GWAS can increase power and precision, but how should we analyze them? Pooled or stratified? We answer that question in a paper out today in AJHG, led by Julie Dias and Haoyu Zhang. 1/7 www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltex...

SPAAM Summer School (2025): Introduction to Ancient Metagenomics Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

Interested in learning more about how researchers analyze ancient DNA? Here you can find the free lectures from the SPAAM Summer School 2025 - Introduction to Ancient Metagenomics: tinyurl.com/3u9mhmd2
Slides: tinyurl.com/mkfrvru4
Feel free to ask questions in the comments!
#ancientDNA #SPAAM

Polygenic prediction of human complex traits using ancient DNA Ancient DNA has revolutionized our understanding of human history and clarified many aspects of human evolution on a molecular level. In this article,…

Nice review of polygenic prediction of traits based on ancient DNA, by @mathiesoniain.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A very special paper where we did something NEW! 🔥combining a large genetic dataset 🧬, a large linguistic dataset 💬, and Bayesian multilevel logistic regressions 📈, counting the effects of areal contact (geographic constrains) 🌎. Genetic admixture explains higher levels of linguistic exchanges...

The study supports the idea of multiple waves of R1a into the Indian subcontinent, with atleast two prominent ones seperated by a time interval. 3/3 #R1a

Our analysis of R1a haplotypes showed lineage sharing between southern Brahmins and the western Iranians. Northern Brahmins experienced a rather recent mixture with R1a haplotypes similar to those found in Afghanistan. 2/3

Exploring the genetic footprints of the gotra system in the Koṅkaṇī Sārasvata Brahmins - Molecular Genetics and Genomics The gotra system of exogamy is followed by the Brahmin caste group in India. This system restricts the marriage of individuals who belong to the same gotra. In genetic terms, each gotra forms an exoga...

Happy to share our paper on the genetics of the gotra system in India. The study shows that the 'gotra' played a significant role in shaping the paternal lineage in Indian brahmins. 1/3 #gotra doi.org/10.1007/s004...

This is how @ryangutenkunst.bsky.social and the #GHIST team make science fun and productive. Thank you Ekaterina Noskova for making me a part of the #GADMA team!

"Churning" the past for answers. An interesting chapter on samudramanthana and the connection between milk and snakes in Indo-European heritage. #IndoEuropean #IndoIranian #rigveda
stockholmuniversitypress.se/reader/chapt...

I'm so proud to see this paper published! Hopefully, it can inspire a positive change in the field of #palaeoproteomics, through open science and researchers working together instead of against each other. Huge thanks and congrats to all coauthors! 🎉

The spatiotemporal distribution of human pathogens in ancient Eurasia - Nature Screening shotgun-sequencing data from ancient humans covering 37,000 years of Eurasian history uncovers the widespread presence of ancient bacterial, viral and parasite DNA and zoonotic pathogens…

#MetagenomicsMonday Analysis of aDNA from 1313 ancient human remains spanning 37k years revealed that the rise of infectious diseases coincided with animal domestication around 65k years ago, with disease spread intensifying during pastoralist migrations.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A SNP panel for co-analysis of capture and shotgun ancient DNA data Advances in technology have decreased the cost of generating genetic variation data from ancient people, resulting in exponentially increasing numbers of individuals with whole genome data. However, e...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

An illustration of a DNA strand surrounded by faces. Artist: Saurabh Singh.

New research from Priya Moorjani's lab offers insights into India’s genomic legacy.

Postdocs @lauritsskov.bsky.social and @ekerdoncuff.bsky.social traced Indian's ancestry to three main sources. Read the findings in this story by grad student Jules Perez: bit.ly/3IK46vh

Unmasking the Denisovans The Harbin cranium, linked to Denisovans via mitochondrial DNA, broadens their known range and provides the first insights into Denisovan morphology. …

Vanessa Villalba-Mouco and I wrote a little preview piece for Cell on the new mtDNA and proteomics results from the Harbin skull. It is free for 50 days at this link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

High resolution analysis of population structure using rare variants Various statistical methods have been developed to identify population structure from genetic data, including F-statistics, which measure the average correlation in allele frequency differences betwee...

"Surprisingly, the resolution of rare variants is even higher than using all variants..." Excited to use this method on Indian population data! @stschiff.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Whole genome sequencing and assembly of the house sparrow, Passer domesticus Whole genome sequencing and assembly of the house sparrow, Passer domesticus

Our latest articles on Whole genome sequencing and assembly of the house sparrow, Passer domesticus

#passer

gigabytejournal.com/articles/161

Yes, I think a lot depends on the "weighting" given to parts/patterns of the data. What could be done with an ARG may not be possible with PCA. I have noticed a change in the clustering pattern for Indian populations (with differing demographic histories) before and after LD pruning.

Thank you for sharing this paper. @sashagusevposts.bsky.social then the LD regions should greatly influence the number of variant differences. Two African groups with different demographic history may exhibit different set of LD regions resulting in dissimilarity compared to an European group.?

How important is it to account for LD in a PCA given that some populations are bottlenecked and some are not? Uniform LD pruning would erase the very characteristic of a population (similarity/dissimilarity) which is the basis of PCA. Isn't it?

Two useful new reviews on ancestry inference in population genetics:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

A common misconception is that genetic drift/bottlenecks erase ancestral components. Yet the persistence of archaic ancestry in India's founder populations proves otherwise. Modern pops like Onge, Paniya, Koraga, Papuan preserve true relics of the human past, sometimes even better than aDNA.

🌾 Agriculture didn’t always spread with mobility of people.
New ancient DNA research shows that in western Anatolia, while communities stayed put, farming and village life spread through the movement of ideas and practices.

50,000 years of evolutionary history of India: Impact on health and disease variation A genomic study of 2,762 individuals from India offers important insights into the genomic diversity and evolutionary history of the subcontinent and highlights the extensive genetic variation, gene f...

Our paper out today: 50,000 years of evolutionary history of India: Impact on health and disease variation: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Artist's reconstruction of the Harbin skull Denisovan. Image by Chuang Zhao

Dragon Man was a Denisovan! DNA and proteins both confirm it, giving this mysterious human lineage a face at long last. Here’s my story. [Gift link] nyti.ms/44nQq1i

On Borders And Belonging - The Genetic Challenge To Nationalism Nationalism thrives on the idea that a nation-state consists of a homogenous people. Yet, genetic ancestry tests contradict the notion of pure, isolated national identities.

Uttryck just published my piece on how genetic ancestry tests have unexpectedly disrupted the notion of nationalism.

Pick up a hardcopy in thier office at Uppsala University!

www.uttryckmagazine.com/2025/04/28/g...

🧵1/n ✨🔮✨ Meet (y)our instructors of this year's #HAAMsummerschool 👇 #aDNA #course #humanpopgen

All biobanks must consider fine scale genetic clusters for a reasonably good understanding of the genetic variation and it's implications. Continental, linguistic, geographical and racial clusters are less effective in real life scenarios.

🔬 Uploading or finding ancient DNA data a headache? Help fix it!
Join our Standards in Human ancient DNA metadata workshop 🧬
🗓️ June 19, 2025
🕐 13:00–16:00 CET
💻 Online | 💰 Free
💬 Feedback = co-authorship possible!
👉 Register: shorturl.at/D3j6i