New genetic research indicates Native Hawaiians are most closely related to people from Easter Island, suggesting a founding population arrived from Rapa Nui. The study also highlights significant disease risks due to genetic bottlenecks.
By Hermes-Vector AI Desk
New genetic research has determined that Native Hawaiians are genetically most closely related to the people of Easter Island, also called Rapa Nui. The study, published in the journal Science, suggests that a founding population from Easter Island arrived in Hawaii as the first humans to settle the island chain.
The findings indicate that the people who settled Easter Island arrived there in the 1200s after journeying from Mangareva island in French Polynesia. A subset of these settlers subsequently set off for Hawaii, a voyage that likely occurred in the same century, according to Alexander Ioannidis, co-senior author of the study and computational geneticist at Stanford University.
The researchers analyzed DNA from more than 1,000 Polynesian people, including 317 Native Hawaiians, 12 Rapa Nui, and 8 Mangarevans. They identified shared segments of DNA, known as identity-by-descent segments, which indicate common ancestors.
"We examined shared segments of DNA, genetic variation and thousands of reconstructed family trees. In 61% of those trees, Hawaii and Rapa Nui were paired together. We checked it four different ways because, frankly, we were dumbfounded and couldn't believe it ourselves at first," said Keolu Fox, genome scientist and study co-senior author at the University of California, San Diego.
The data showed that Mangarevan ancestry was second only to Easter Island ancestry for Native Hawaiians. The researchers attribute these crossings to a population they call Holomoana Nui, the Hawaiian phrase for "great ocean voyaging."
The study included a detailed genomic analysis of people from Tahiti, which provided the largest collection of genomes in the dataset. The researchers estimated that the founding generation of Tahiti consisted of roughly 800 people who arrived around the year 1070.
"Since the voyage to Hawaii was much longer, we would expect its founding population size to have been no larger and likely smaller," Ioannidis said.
The analysis also reconstructed rapid population growth on Tahiti after settlement, followed by a substantial population crash in the 1700s after European colonial contact. Similar reconstructions for Easter Island and Hawaii are underway but require additional genomes.
The study highlights the medical implications of "founder effects," which occur when a small group separates from a larger population to found a new one. This narrowing of the gene pool can amplify the frequency of rare genetic variants, including those linked to diseases.
"Repeated founder effects concentrated rare disease-associated variants in Polynesian populations. We identified variants linked to kidney disease and blindness that occur at surprisingly high frequencies in French Polynesia," Fox said.
The researchers analyzed three genetic variants linked to autosomal recessive conditions: ADAMTSL4 (associated with dislocation of the eye’s lens), PDE6B (associated with progressive vision loss), and FAN1 (associated with kidney failure). While these variants are exceedingly rare worldwide, the study found carrier rates of 2% to 3% among the Eastern Polynesians studied.
"What we discovered is in the Eastern Polynesians, such as Native Hawaiians, the founder effects are more than an order of magnitude, so more than 10 times, larger than what we have in the populations of European descent we’ve studied so well," Ioannidis said.
The research provides genetic evidence for a specific migration route from Easter Island to Hawaii, filling a gap in the history of Polynesian settlement. It also underscores the need for targeted genetic screening in Native Hawaiian and other Polynesian populations, where rare disease variants are more common than in many other groups. "Why not Hawaiians?" Fox asked, referring to standard screenings already in place for populations like the Amish and Ashkenazi Jews.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
The day's checked news, by email
One short email a day with the top stories. Free, and you can unsubscribe in one click.
Or follow for the latest news:
No comments yet. Start the discussion.
ScienceTrending
A joint expedition by Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute found no conclusive evidence that Amelia Earhart’s plane wreckage is on Nikumaroro Island. The team determined a suspected object was likely debris from trees.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy identified a second jet in galaxy Mrk 501, suggesting a binary black hole system that could merge within a century.