Reconstructing the Deep Population History of Central and South America.

Cell
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 49 individuals forming four parallel time transects in Belize, Brazil, the Central Andes, and the Southern Cone, each dating to at least ∼9,000 years ago. The common ancestral population radiated rapidly from just one of the two early branches that contributed to Native Americans today. We document two previously unappreciated streams of gene flow between North and South America. One affected the Central Andes by ∼4,200 years ago, while the other explains an affinity between the oldest North American genome associated with the Clovis culture and the oldest Central and South Americans from Chile, Brazil, and Belize. However, this was not the primary source for later South Americans, as the other ancient individuals derive from lineages without specific affinity to the Clovis-associated genome, suggesting a population replacement that began at least 9,000 years ago and was followed by substantial population continuity in multiple regions.

Year of Publication
2018
Journal
Cell
Volume
175
Issue
5
Pages
1185-1197.e22
Date Published
2018 Nov 15
ISSN
1097-4172
DOI
10.1016/j.cell.2018.10.027
PubMed ID
30415837
PubMed Central ID
PMC6327247
Links
Grant list
R01 GM100233 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States
FC001595 / MRC_ / Medical Research Council / United Kingdom
T32 GM007753 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States
FC001595 / WT_ / Wellcome Trust / United Kingdom
FC001595 / CRUK_ / Cancer Research UK / United Kingdom
HHMI / Howard Hughes Medical Institute / United States
R01 HG006399 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States