Editing Ainu people (section)

====Autosomal DNA====
The Ainu appear genetically most closely related to the [[Jōmon people|Jōmon period peoples]] of Japan. Previous genetic analyses of Jomon remains found them to represent a deeply diverged [[East Asian people|East Asian]] lineage. The Jomon lineage is inferred to have diverged from Ancient East Asians before the divergence between [[Ancient Northern East Asian]]s and [[Ancient Southern East Asian]]s, but after the divergence of the basal [[Tianyuan man]] and/or [[Hoabinhian]]s. Beyond their broad affinity with Eastern Asian lineages, the Jomon also display a weak affinity for [[Ancient North Eurasian]]s (ANE), which may be associated with the introduction of [[microblade technology]] to Northeast Asia and northern East Asia during the [[Last Glacial Maximum]] via the ANE or [[Ancient Paleo-Siberian]]s.{{sfnp|Osada|Kawai|2021}}{{sfnp|Cooke|Mattiangeli|Cassidy|Okazaki|2021}}

The genetic makeup of the Ainu represents a "deep branch of East Asian diversity". Compared to contemporary East Asian populations, the Ainu share "a closer genetic relationship with northeast Siberians". The Ainu also display a relative closer genetic affinity with "lowland East Asians" than "highland East Asians" and may have contributed some ancestry to surrounding populations around the Sea of Okhotsk. Differences in the frequency of the derived [[EDAR]] gene variant between the Ainu and contemporary East Asians suggest that the ancestors of the Ainu may not have shared the selective pressures with other Ancestral East Asian populations. The Ainu, however, share two variants in the ADH gene cluster with other East Asians at high frequency, unlike Tibetans and Sherpa, "raising the possibility that selective pressure on these variants was different in the high-altitude environments."{{sfnp|Jeong|Nakagome|Di Rienzo|2016}}

The closest modern ethnic groups to the Ainu are the [[Ryukyuan people|Ryukyuans]] in southern Japan, followed by contemporary Japanese people. Compared with other East Asian populations, the Ainu are an outgroup, pointing to long-lasting isolation after their divergence. By analyzing the [[SNP genotyping|SNP loci]] of Ainu individuals, it was found that they carry genes associated with facial structure found among Europeans and hair and tooth morphology found among East Asians.{{sfnp|Jinam|Kanzawa-Kiriyama|Inoue|Tokunaga|2015}} Genetic analyses of HLA I and HLA II genes as well as [[HLA-A]], [[HLA-B|B]], and [[HLA-DRB1|DRB1]] gene frequencies placed the Ainu in an intermediate position between [[indigenous peoples of the Americas]] and contemporary Northeast Asians.{{sfnp|Tokunaga|Ohashi|Bannai|Juji|2001}}{{sfnp|Kanzawa-Kiriyama|Jinam|Kawai|Sato|2019}}

[[File:Admixture graph based on the genomic data of NAT002, F23, and modern populations.jpg|thumb|Admixture graph based on the genomic data of Okhotsk (NAT002), Jomon (F23), and modern populations]]

Studies on modern-day Ainu estimate that they derive between 66% and 79.3% of their ancestry from the Jōmon lineage.{{sfnp|Kanzawa-Kiriyama|Jinam|Kawai|Sato|2019}}{{sfnp|Gakuhari|Nakagome|Rasmussen|Allentoft|2020}} Another study on modern Ainu individuals found that they derive c. 49% of their ancestry directly from the Jōmon people, c. 22% from the Okhotsk people (who themselves could be modeled as 54% [[Ancient Northeast Asian]], 22% [[Ancient Paleo-Siberian]], and 24% Jōmon), and ~29% from the [[Yamato people|Yamato]] Japanese (who carried around 11% Jōmon and 89% Yayoi ancestry), corresponding with historical events.{{sfnp|Sato|Adachi|Kimura|Hosomichi|2021}}