%0 Report
%A Biddanda, Arjun
%A Bandyopadhyay, Esha
%A de la Castro, Constanza Fuente
%A Witonsky, David
%A Pasupuleti, Nagarjuna
%A Fonseca, Renée
%A Freilich, Suzanne
%A Moots, Hannah M.
%A Stanisavic, Jovan
%A Willis, Tabitha
%A Menon, Anoushka
%A Mustak, Mohammed S.
%A Kodira, Chinnappa Dilip
%A Naren, Anjaparavanda P.
%A Sikdar, Mithun
%A Rai, Niraj
%A Raghavan, Maanasa
%+ External Organizations
%T Integrating genetic and oral histories of Southwest Indian populations : 
%G eng
%U https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000A-B574-7
%R 10.1101/2022.07.06.498959 
%D 2022
%8 07.07.2022
%Z Review method: peer-reviewed
%X India is home to thousands of ethno-linguistically distinct groups, many maintaining strong self-<br>identities that derive from oral traditions and histories. However, these traditions and histories are <br>only partially documented and are in danger of being lost over time. More recently, genetic studies <br>have established the existence of ancestry gradients derived from both western and eastern <br>Eurasia as well as evidence of practices such as endogamy and consanguinity, revealing <br>complexity in the regional population structure with consequences for the health landscape of <br>local populations. Despite the increase in genome-wide data from India, there is still sparse <br>sampling across finer-scale geographic regions leading to gaps in our understanding of how and <br>when present-day genetic structure came into existence. To address the gaps in genetic and oral <br>histories, we analyzed whole-genome sequences of 70 individuals from Southwest India <br>identifying as Bunt, Kodava, and Nair—populations that share unique oral histories and origin <br>narratives—and 78 recent immigrants to the United States with Kodava ancestry as part of a <br>community-led initiative. We additionally generated genome-wide data from 10 individuals self-<br>identifying as Kapla, a population from the same region that is socio-culturally different to the <br>other three study populations. We supplemented existing but limited anthropological records on <br>these populations with oral history accounts narrated by community members and non-member <br>contacts during sampling and subsequent community engagement. Overall, we find that <br>components of genetic ancestry are relatively homogeneous among the Bunt, Kodava, and Nair <br>populations and comparable to neighboring populations in India, which motivates further <br>investigation of non-local origin narratives referenced in their oral histories. A notable exception <br>is the Kapla population, with a higher proportion of ancestry represented in the Onge from the <br>Andaman Islands, similar to several South Indian tribal populations. Utilizing haplotype-based <br>methods, we find latent genetic structure across South India, including the sampled populations <br><br>available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.<br><br>was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made <br><br>bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.07.06.498959; this version posted July 7, 2022. The copyright holder for this preprint (which<br><br><br> <br><br>2 <br><br>from Southwest India, suggesting more recent population structure between geographically <br>proximal populations in the region. This study represents an attempt for community-engaged <br>anthropological and genetic investigations in India and presents results from both sources, <br>underscoring the need to recognize that oral and genetic histories should not be expected to <br>overlap. Ultimately, oral traditions and unique self-identities, such as those held close by some of <br>the study populations, warrant more community-driven anthropological investigations to better <br>understand how they originate and their relationship to genetic histories. 
%J Biorxiv