Doctoral Dissertation Research: Morphological biodistances as indicators of slave trade migration histories in the African Diaspora

博士论文研究：形态生物距离作为非洲侨民奴隶贸易移民历史的指标

• 批准号: 2041182
• 负责人: Valerie DeLeon
• 金额: $ 2.66万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-04-15 至 2023-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2041182&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Morphological; biodistances

Millions of people were displaced due to slave trade during the 15th – 19th centuries. These systems profoundly influenced population dynamics as enslaved people were transported thousands of miles from their homes and experienced restricted social life and mobility in enslavement. This doctoral dissertation project examines skeletal morphology of these enslaved people and their descendants to understand how certain biological groups formed and changed over time, explores gene flow and other evolutionary processes that may explain how the biological variation is distributed, and investigates patterns of biological relatedness that may not be reflected in historic migration data. The project supports the doctoral training of a student from an underrepresented group in science, a multi-point research collaboration, outreach with community members, and student mentoring. The project also develops curricula and seminars in collaboration with the University of Florida’s College Reach Out Program to increase postsecondary admission and completion for students from groups historically underrepresented in STEM research. This project’s theoretical framework is rooted in stochastic microevolutionary expectations and diaspora studies. Microevolutionary processes such as population stratification are inferred from the premise that gene flow, rather than natural selection, is the main influence on observed biological patterns. Further, interpretations gleaned from the project derive from slave trade history, where European nations directly influenced the gene flow of the diaspora populations that formed across the Atlantic. The project asks two central questions: (1) What African and Afro-descendant diaspora groups show high biological relatedness as estimated by cranial morphology, and how do these data identify evidence of gene flow not otherwise described by historical migration data? and, (2) Given the social and legal restrictions that created physical separation among enslaved persons, do diaspora groups show stronger evidence of population stratification and genetic isolation than African groups? To investigate these questions, this project applies geometric morphometric methods to collect 3D landmarks from adult human cranial remains and uses these data to statistically analyze within-group and between-group variation in cranial morphology. Data will be collected from twenty-one sites, comprising cranial remains of 805 adult African descendants. These samples represent a variety of regions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在15至19世纪，数以百万计的人因奴隶贸易而流离失所。当被奴役的人从他们的家中运送数千英里，并经历了奴役的社会生活和流动性限制，这些系统对人口动态产生了深远的影响。该博士论文项目检查这些被奴役的人及其后代的骨骼形态，以了解某些生物群体如何随着时间的流逝而形成和变化，探索基因流量和其他进化过程，这些过程可能会分布生物学变异，并研究如何在历史迁移数据中反映出生物学相关性的模式。该项目支持来自代表性不足的科学小组的学生培训，多点研究合作，与社区成员的宣传以及学生的心理培训。该项目还与佛罗里达大学的大学伸出援助计划合作开发了课程和半数，以增加学院的入学和完成历史上缺乏STEM研究成果的学生的完成。该项目的理论框架植根于随机的微观进化期望和侨民研究。从基因流而非自然选择的前提是对观察到的生物学模式的主要影响。此外，该项目源自奴隶贸易历史的解释，欧洲国家直接影响了跨大西洋散居侨民种群的基因流动。该项目提出了两个核心问题：（1）哪些非洲和非洲裔侨民群体表现出高生物学相关性，如颅形态所估计，这些数据如何确定历史迁移数据未另外描述的基因流的证据？ （2）鉴于社会和法律限制在被奴役的人之间造成了身体分离，散居者群体比非洲群体表现出更强的人口分层和遗传孤立的证据？为了研究这些问题，该项目应用了几何形态学方法来从成人人类颅骨中收集3D地标，并使用这些数据来统计分析颅内形态的组内和组间变异。数据将从21个地点收集，完成805名成年非洲后代的颅骨遗体。这些样本代表了各个区域。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来评估，被认为是珍贵的支持。