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Ancient mitochondrial DNA provides high-resolution time scale of the peopling of the Americas.


ABSTRACT: The exact timing, route, and process of the initial peopling of the Americas remains uncertain despite much research. Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of humans as far as southern Chile by 14.6 thousand years ago (ka), shortly after the Pleistocene ice sheets blocking access from eastern Beringia began to retreat. Genetic estimates of the timing and route of entry have been constrained by the lack of suitable calibration points and low genetic diversity of Native Americans. We sequenced 92 whole mitochondrial genomes from pre-Columbian South American skeletons dating from 8.6 to 0.5 ka, allowing a detailed, temporally calibrated reconstruction of the peopling of the Americas in a Bayesian coalescent analysis. The data suggest that a small population entered the Americas via a coastal route around 16.0 ka, following previous isolation in eastern Beringia for ~2.4 to 9 thousand years after separation from eastern Siberian populations. Following a rapid movement throughout the Americas, limited gene flow in South America resulted in a marked phylogeographic structure of populations, which persisted through time. All of the ancient mitochondrial lineages detected in this study were absent from modern data sets, suggesting a high extinction rate. To investigate this further, we applied a novel principal components multiple logistic regression test to Bayesian serial coalescent simulations. The analysis supported a scenario in which European colonization caused a substantial loss of pre-Columbian lineages.

SUBMITTER: Llamas B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4820370 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Ancient mitochondrial DNA provides high-resolution time scale of the peopling of the Americas.

Llamas Bastien B   Fehren-Schmitz Lars L   Valverde Guido G   Soubrier Julien J   Mallick Swapan S   Rohland Nadin N   Nordenfelt Susanne S   Valdiosera Cristina C   Richards Stephen M SM   Richards Stephen M SM   Rohrlach Adam A   Romero Maria Inés Barreto MI   Espinoza Isabel Flores IF   Cagigao Elsa Tomasto ET   Jiménez Lucía Watson LW   Makowski Krzysztof K   Reyna Ilán Santiago Leboreiro IS   Lory Josefina Mansilla JM   Torrez Julio Alejandro Ballivián JA   Rivera Mario A MA   Burger Richard L RL   Ceruti Maria Constanza MC   Reinhard Johan J   Wells R Spencer RS   Politis Gustavo G   Santoro Calogero M CM   Standen Vivien G VG   Smith Colin C   Reich David D   Ho Simon Y W SY   Cooper Alan A   Haak Wolfgang W  

Science advances 20160401 4


The exact timing, route, and process of the initial peopling of the Americas remains uncertain despite much research. Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of humans as far as southern Chile by 14.6 thousand years ago (ka), shortly after the Pleistocene ice sheets blocking access from eastern Beringia began to retreat. Genetic estimates of the timing and route of entry have been constrained by the lack of suitable calibration points and low genetic diversity of Native Americans. We sequ  ...[more]

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