Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42497277›Full record

ArticleScience advances2026

Ancient genomes from Ladakh reveal 2800-year-old admixture between Tibetans and South Asians.

Nick Patterson, Veena Mushrif-Tripathy, Quentin Devers, Lijun Qiu, Sonam Dolma, Gregory Soos, Swapan Mallick, Nadin Rohland, David Reich

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In one paragraph

Article in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Nick PattersonDepartment of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-0302-684X
Veena Mushrif-TripathyDepartment of Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Deccan College Rd, Yerawada, Pune, India.ORCID 0000-0002-4749-1316
Quentin DeversCRCAO, Collège de France, EPHE, CNRS, PSL Research University, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France.ORCID 0000-0001-8469-0165
Lijun QiuDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4377-8659
Sonam DolmaDepartment of Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Deccan College Rd, Yerawada, Pune, India.ORCID 0009-0006-0535-1362
Gregory SoosDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-6908-9248
Swapan MallickBroad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4531-4439
Nadin RohlandBroad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
David ReichDepartment of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7037-5292

Funding

Solving ascertainment bias in ancient DNA using Ultima Genomics sequencingR01HG012287 · NHGRI · HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL · PI REICH, DAVID E · 2021 to 2025
$2.7M
NHGRI NIH HHS R01 HG012287
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Reconstructing population history is harder in South Asia than in many other world regions due to a paucity of ancient DNA. We report genome-wide data for 10 individuals from Old Lady Spider Cave, which lies 4000 meters above sea level in the Himalayan region of Ladakh and dates to around 1500 years before the present (B.P.). These individuals were genetically homogeneous and had an ancestry signature rare in South Asians today: admixed in roughly 50-50% proportions between a population well proxied by present-day North Indians and another genetically similar to ancient Tibetans. By analyzing the typical sizes of segments of DNA inherited from each of these ancestral populations, we find that admixture of these groups began at least 50 generations before the date of the individuals, that is, by around 2800 B.P.

Indexed as

DNA, AncientGenetics, PopulationGenome, HumanEast Asian PeopleHumansSouth Asian PeopleTibetDNA, Ancient

Identifiers

PMID42497277
PMCPMC13398531

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.