Research

My research focus is human settlement history and the interactions between humans and their cultural and physical environment. This is achieved by combining approaches from anthropology to genomics to reconstruct demographic histories and to identify the selective pressures at play. Much of my work over the last 20 years has taken place in the Indo-Pacific region, the Indonesian archipelago and Papua New Guinea, where I have conducted numerous archaeological and anthropo-biological projects.

Responsabilities, other activities

• Director of the Papuan Past Project
• PI of Mission Préhistorique Française en Papouasie Nouvelle Guinée (Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères – MEAE)
• PI of PapuaEvol Project (French National Research Agency – ANR)
• Co-PI of Discovery Project (Australian Research Council – ARC)
• Co-PI of Magellan Project (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia – FCT)
• Co-PI of OcSean Project (European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme – ERC)

List of selected publications

André M, Brucato N, Hudjasov G, Pankratov V, Yermakovich D, Kreevan R, Kariwiga J, Muke J, Boland A, Deleuze JF, Meyer V, Evans N, Cox MP, Leavesley M, Dannemann M, Org T, Metspalu M, Mondal M, Ricaut F.-X. 2024. Positive selection in genomes of two Papua New Guinean populations at distinct altitude levels. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47735-1.

Tsang R, Katuk S, May S, Tacon P, Ricaut F.-X., Leavesley M. 2023. Hand stencils and communal history: A case study from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea. Archaeology in Oceania Vol. 58,1 (2023): 115–130. doi: 10.1002/arco.5287

Pedro N, Brucato N, Cavadas B, Lisant V, Camacho R, Kinipi C, Leavesley M, Pereira L, Ricaut F.-X. 2023.  First insight into oral microbiome diversity in Papua New Guineans reveals a specific regional signature. Molecular Ecology 32(10):2551-2564. doi: 10.1111/mec.16702.

Brucato N, André M, Hudjashov G, Mondal M, Cox MP, Leavesley M, Ricaut F.-X. 2022. Chronology of natural selection in Oceanian genomes. iScience 25(7):104583 doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104583

Karmin M, Flores RJ, Saag L, Hudjashov G, Brucato N, Crenna-Darusallam C, Larena M, Endicott PL, Jakobsson M, Lansing S, Sudoyo H, Leavesley M, Metspalu M, Ricaut F.-X., Cox MP. 2022 Episodes of diversification and isolation in Island Southeast Asian and Near Oceanian male lineages. Molecular Biology and Evolution. (msac045). doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msac045

Derakhshan M, Kessler NJ, Ishida M, Demetriou C, Brucato N, Moore GE, Fall CHD,  Chandak GR Ricaut F.-X., Prentice AM, Hellenthal G, Silver MJ. 2022. Tissue- and ethnicity-independent hypervariable DNA methylation states show evidence of establishment in the early human embryo. Nucleic Acids Research. 2022 Jun 17;gkac503. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkac503

Plutniak S, Araujo A, Sugiyanto B, Oktaviana AA, Chazine JM, Ricaut F.-X. 2022. Mainland-coastal interactions in East Borneo: inter-site comparison and Bayesian chronological models of two Late Pleistocene-Holocene sequences (Liang Abu and Kimanis rock shelters). Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology, 21 sept. doi: 10.1080/15564894.2022.2108947

Vespasiani1D.M., Jacobs G.S., Cook L.E., Brucato N, Leavesley M., Kinipi C., Ricaut F.-X., Cox M-P, Gallego Romero I. 2022. Denisovan introgression has shaped the immune system of present-day Papuans. PLOS Genetics; 18(12):e1010470. doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.09.196444

Tsang R, Katuk S, May S.K., Taçon P.S.C., Ricaut F.-X., Leavesley M.G. 2021. « Rock art and (re)production of narratives: A cassowary bone dagger stencil perspective from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea« . Cambridge Archaeological Journal 32:4p 547-565. doi:10.1017/S0959774322000026

Brucato N, André M, Tsang R, Saag L, Kariwiga J, Sesuki K, Beni T, Pomat W, Muke J, Meyer V, Boland A, Deleuze J-F, Sudoyo H, Mondal M, Pagani L, Gallego Romero I, Metspalu M, Cox MP, Leavesley M, Ricaut F.-X. 2021. Papua New Guinean genomes reveal the complex settlement of north Sahul. Molecular Biology and Evolution 38(11):5107-5121. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msab238

André M, Brucato N, Plutniak S, Kariwiga J, Muke J, Morez A, Leavesley M, Mondal M, Ricaut F.-X. 2021. Phenotypic differences between highlanders and lowlanders in Papua New Guinea. PLoS One. 16(7):e0253921. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253921

Raimondeau P, Manzi S, Brucato N, Kinipi C, Leavesley M, Ricaut F.-X., Besnard G. 2021. Genome skims analysis of betel palms (Areca spp., Arecaceae) and development of a profiling method to assess their plastome diversity. Gene. 800:145845. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2021.145845.

Tsang R, Katuk S, Ricaut F.-X., M.G. Leavesley. 2021. Agency, affect and archaeologist: transforming place with rock art in Auwim, upper Karawari Arafundi Region, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea. Rock Art Research, Vol 38, n°2, pp. 183-194. doi:10.1017/S0959774322000026

Tsang R, Pleiber W, Kariwiga J, Plutniak S, Forestier H, , P. S.C. Taçon, Ricaut F.-X., M.G. Leavesley. 2020. Rock art and long-distance prehistoric exchange behaviour: a case study from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea. Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology Vol 17, n°3, 432–444; doi: 10.1080/15564894.2020.1834472

Pedro N, Brucato N, Fernandes V, André M, Saag L, Pomat W, Besse C, Boland A, Deleuze JF, Clarkson C, Sudoyo H, Metspalu M, Stoneking M, Cox MP, Leavesley M, Pereira L, Ricaut F.-X. 2020. Papuan mitochondrial genomes and the settlement of Sahul. Journal of Human Genetic 65 (10), 875-887. doi: 10.1038/s10038-020-0781-3

Priehodová E, Austerlitz F, Čížková M, Nováčková J, Ricaut F.-X., Hofmanová Z, Schlebusch CM, V Černý. 2020. Sahelian pastoralism from perspective of lactase persistence associated variants. American Journal of Physical Anthropology e24116. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24116 hal-02919786

Gheddar L, Ricaut F.-X., Ameline A, Brucato N, Tsang R, Leavesley M, Raul JS, Kintz P. 2020. Testing for Betel Nut Alkaloids in Hair of Papuans Abusers using UPLC-MS/MS and UPLC-Q-Tof-MS. Journal of Analytical Toxicology. 44(1):41-48. doi: 10.1093/jat/bkz045.

Jacobs GS, Hudjashov G, Saag L, Kusuma P, Darusallam CC, Lawson DJ, Mondal M, Pagani L, Ricaut F.-X., Stoneking M, Metspalu M, Sudoyo H, Lansing JS, Cox MP. 2019 Multiple deeply divergent Denisovan ancestries in Papuans. Cell. S0092-8674(19)30218-1. doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.02.035

Brucato N, Fernandes V, Kusuma P, Černý V, Mulligan CJ, Soares P, Rito T, Besse C, Boland A, Deleuze JF, Cox MP, Sudoyo H, Stoneking M, Pereira L, Ricaut F.-X. 2019 Evidence of Austronesian Genetic Lineages in East Africa and South Arabia: Complex Dispersal from Madagascar and Southeast Asia. Genome Biology and Evolution 11(3):748-758. doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evz028

Fernandes V, Brucato N, Ferreira JC, Pedro N, Cavadas B, Ricaut F.-X., Alshamali F, Pereira L. 2019. Genome-Wide Characterization of Arabian Peninsula Populations: Shedding Light on the History of a Fundamental Bridge between Continents. Molecular Biology and Evolution Mar 1;36(3):575-586. doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msz005