Male-driven admixture facilitated subsistence shift in northern China

Agriculture was arguably the most profound innovation in human history, and while it eventually spread throughout the planet its specific origins and dispersals are unique across different regions. It is therefore important to take into account diverse geographic and cultural contexts when trying to understand independent transitions to farming in different regions. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in sequencing ancient human genomes, enabling more regionally specific questions to be asked regarding the genetic impact of the local adoption of agriculture. One particularly informative approach is to explore the imbalance of genetic admixture from male versus female sources, which offers valuable insights into the social structures and cultural interactions of prehistoric populations. Here, we utilize publicly available data of ancient genomes from northern China, an area that is well known for one of the earliest centres for agricultural revolution, to look at potential sex biases in genetic admixture from different time periods based on autosomal and sex-specifically inherited X chromosomal variation. Our analysis identifies a higher influx of males from the Yellow River basin to the West Liao River basin during the Late Neolithic period associated with an increase in the reliance on millet farming in this region. This result underscores a distinction in farming transitions in northern China, particularly when compared to agricultural transitions in Europe, where there is no evidence of sex-biased admixture.