The population structure of the Indian subcontinent is a tapestry of extraordinary diversity characterized by the amalgamation of autochthonous and immigrant ancestries and rigid enforcement of sociocultural stratification. Here we investigated the genetic origin and population history of the Kumhars, a group of people who inhabit large parts of northern India. We compared 27 previously published Kumhar SNP genotype data sampled from Uttar Pradesh in north India to various modern day and ancient populations. Various approaches such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Admixture, TreeMix concurred that Kumhars have high ASI ancestry, minimal Steppe component and high genomic proximity to the Kurchas, a small and relatively little-known population found ~ 2500 km away in Kerala, south India. Given the same, biogeographical mapping using Geographic Population Structure (GPS) assigned most Kumhar samples in areas neighboring to those where Kurchas are found in south India. We hypothesize that the significant genomic similarity between two apparently distinct modern-day Indian populations that inhabit well separated geographical areas with no known overlapping history or links, likely alludes to their common origin during or post the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization (estimated by ALDER). Thereafter, while they dispersed towards opposite ends of the Indian subcontinent, their genomic integrity and likeness remained preserved due to endogamous social practices. Our findings illuminate the genomic history of two Indian populations, allowing a glimpse into one or few of numerous of human migrations that likely occurred across the Indian subcontinent and contributed to shape its varied and vibrant evolutionary past.

中文翻译：

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失去双胞胎的故事：解码印度次大陆的Kumhar和Kurcha种群的遗传身份

印度次大陆的人口结构是一类极为繁多的挂毯，其特征是融合了土著和移民祖先，并严格执行了社会文化分层。在这里，我们调查了居住在印度北部大部分地区的一群人Kumhars的遗传起源和人口史。我们比较了从印度北部北方邦采样的27个先前发布的Kumhar SNP基因型数据与各种现代和古代人群的比较。主成分分析（PCA），Admixture，TreeMix等各种方法均认为，库姆哈尔族人具有很高的ASI血统，极少的草原成分以及与库尔恰斯的高度基因组邻近性，在南部喀拉拉邦约2500公里处发现了一个很少见且相对鲜为人知的种群印度。同样，使用地理人口结构（GPS）进行的生物地理制图将大多数Kumhar样本分配给了印度南部发现库尔恰斯的地区附近。我们假设两个明显不同的现代印度人口之间存在着明显的基因组相似性，这些人口居住在地理位置良好而又彼此之间没有重叠的历史或联系的地理区域中，很可能暗示了印度河谷文明衰落期间或之后的共同起源（由ALDER估计） ）。此后，尽管它们分散到印度次大陆的相对两端，但由于内婚的社会习俗，它们的基因组完整性和相似性仍然得以保留。我们的发现阐明了两个印度人口的基因组历史，