DNA study reveals human migration to India 50,000 years ago

In a recent exploration of India’s ancient human history, researchers have utilized genetic analysis to delve into the country’s past, dating back 50,000 years. A team led by Elise Kerdoncuff, a population geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, sequenced the genomes of 2,762 individuals from diverse regions, castes, tribes, and linguistic backgrounds across India.

This groundbreaking study, detailed in a preprint, aims to enrich our understanding of India’s demographic history and emphasizes the importance of including a broad spectrum of groups from beyond Europe in genomic research. Previous research suggested that the Indian population’s ancestry could be traced back to ancient Iranian farmers, Eurasian steppe herders, and indigenous South Asian hunter-gatherers. Kerdoncuff and his team discovered varying degrees of genetic influence from these groups among modern Indians.

One notable finding is the significant contribution of ancient Iranian farmers, likely originating from Sarazm, an early agricultural center in present-day Tajikistan. This supports the idea that ancient societies were more interconnected than previously acknowledged, as highlighted by archaeologist Michael Frachetti from Washington University in St. Louis.

Furthermore, the study revealed that modern Indians possess between one to two percent of their ancestry from Neanderthals and Denisovans, ancient human relatives. The genetic analysis uncovered a remarkable diversity of Neanderthal and Denisovan genes in the Indian genomes, surpassing that found in other populations. Specifically, approximately 90.7 percent of Neanderthal gene sequences worldwide are present in India, and about 51 percent of Denisovan sequences are unique to the country.

The research concluded that the majority of genetic diversity in the Indian population stems from a principal migration out of Africa around 50,000 years ago, with earlier migrations having a minimal genetic impact on today’s Indian populace.