On the origins, rapid expansion and genetic diversity of native Americans from hunting‐gatherers to agriculturalists

Abstract

Given the importance of Y-chromosome haplogroup Q to better understand the source populations of contemporary Native Americans, we studied 8 biallelic and 17 microsatellite polymorphisms on the background of 128 Q Y-chromosomes from geographically targeted populations. The populations examined in this study include three from the Tuva Republic in Central Asia (Bai-Tai, Kungurtug, and Toora-Hem, n = 146), two from the northeastern tip of Siberia (New Chaplino and Chukchi, n = 32), and two from Mesoamerica (Mayans from Yucatan, Mexico n = 72, and Mayans from the Guatemalan Highlands, n = 43). We also see evidence of a dramatic Mesoamerican post-migration population growth in the ubiquitous and diverse Y-STR profiles of the Mayan and other Mesoamerican populations. In the case of the Mayans, this demographic growth was most likely fueled by the agricultural- and trade-based subsistence adopted during the Pre-Classic, Classic and Post-Classic periods of their empire. The limited diversity levels observed in the Altaian and Tuvinian regions of Central Asia, the lowest of all populations examined, may be the consequence of bottleneck events fostered by the spatial isolation and low effective population size characteristic of a nomadic lifestyle. Furthermore, our data illustrate how a sociocultural characteristic such as mode of subsistence may be of impact on the genetic structure of populations. We analyzed our genetic data using Multidimensional Scaling Analysis of populations, Principal Component Analysis of individuals, Median-joining networks of M242, M346, L54, and M3 individuals, age estimations based on microsatellite variation utilizing genealogical and evolutionary mutation rates/generation times and estimation of Y- STR average gene diversity indices.

The First Peopling of South America: New Evidence from Y-Chromosome Haplogroup Q

“…Network analysis were performed on Native American [Alaskan, Canadian, North American, Caribbean [49], Central American (from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama), Mexican, Andean (from Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru), South Eastern American (from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) (present study)] and Asian [Northern and Southern Altaians [51], Mongolian and Far Eastern Asian (from Kamchatka, Chukotka and Sea of Okhotsk coast) [59], [78]; present study)] samples (Table S4). Light blue loop is referred to the unusual DYS391-6 repeat allele.…”

“…asamples with duplicated alleles and partial repeats were excluded.bAndes: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru.cKoryaks (present study), Evens [59], Chukchi [78].dDYS388 and DYS461 were not genotyped.eAltai Republic [51].fNorth America [49].gDYS461 was not genotyped.hBolivia and Peru [56].iQ-M120 (3) and Q-M25 (2) samples included, Q-L53* sample (1) not included because not genotyped for DYS461.j23.3±5.4 (48) without PV4.k20.7±3.7 (20) including outlier sample carrying DYS391 = 6 repeat.lincluding one Mi'kmaq from Nova Scotia and one First Nation from British Columbia.mwith or without PV2.n15.4±6.5 ( 6 ) including outlier sample carrying DYS390 = 24 repeat; 18.5±7.7 ( 6 ) without DYS388 and DYS461; 9.1±3.0 ( 5 ) excluding outlier sample carrying DYS390 = 24 repeat and without DYS388 and DYS461.…”

Reconciling migration models to the Americas with the variation of North American native mitogenomes

“…S2), covering all of the artic regions both in northern Canada and Greenland (on the American side) and in northeastern Siberia (on the Asian side), as a result of the back-migration process proposed by Tamm et al (8). This expansion event is the same that led to the spread of: (i) mtDNA haplogroup D2a1, found in the northernmost Eskimos (and the single individual available from the extinct Paleo-Eskimo Saqqaq culture, dated to 3.4-4.5 ka; but hopefully other Paleo-Eskimo remains will be found and analyzed soon), Chukchi, Aleuts, Athapaskans, and possibly the Tlingit (21, 61); and (ii) Y-chromosome haplogroup Q1a*-MEH2, found in the Koryaks and Chukchi of Northeast Siberia, as well as in the ancient Paleo-Eskimo already mentioned above (12,62,63). Such circumpolar population dynamics neither involved the pan-American lineages that were spread all over the Americas by the PaleoIndians, nor the subsequent Neo-Eskimo (Thule) groups that probably brought the D3 (and perhaps A2b1) mtDNAs from Alaska to South Greenland only one millennium ago (21,61,64).…”

Globalization and children’s diets: The case of Maya of Mexico and Central America

“…Genetic and dental studies indicate that the Maya form a definable biological population (Gómez-Casado et al 2003, Cucina and Tiesler 2004, Scherer 2007, Regueiro et al 2013, Willermet et al 2013. Maya differ in these traits from the Mestizo and Ladino ethnic groups of Mexico and Central America, who show greater biological and social affinities with their Spanish ancestors.…”