The Genetic History of Native Americans

• Published in: Nature
• Main Authors: Reich, David, Patterson, Nick, Campbell, Desmond, Tandon, Arti, Mazieres, Stéphane, Ray, Nicolas, Parra, Maria V., Rojas, Winston, Duque, Constanza, Mesa, Natalia, García, Luis F., Triana, Omar, Blair, Silvia, Maestre, Amanda, Dib, Juan C., Bravi, Claudio Marcelo, Bailliet, Graciela, Corach, Daniel, Hünemeier, Tábita, Bortolini, Maria Cátira, Salzano, Francisco M., Petzl Erler, María Luiza, Acuña Alonzo, Victor, Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos, Canizales Quinteros, Samuel, Tusié Luna, Teresa, Riba, Laura, Rodríguez Cruz, Maricela, Lopez Alarcón, Mardia, Coral Vazquez, Ramón
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Native Americans; Peopling of America; Genomics; South America; North America; https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.6; https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1; https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6.5; https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6; Arctic; Canada; Rojas; aleut; Chipewyan; eskimo*; Eskimo–Aleut
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11336/125482

The peopling of the Americas has been the subject of extensive genetic, archaeological and linguistic research; however, central questions remain unresolved1, 2, 3, 4, 5. One contentious issue is whether the settlement occurred by means of a single6, 7, 8 migration or multiple streams of migration from Siberia9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. The pattern of dispersals within the Americas is also poorly understood. To address these questions at a higher resolution than was previously possible, we assembled data from 52 Native American and 17 Siberian groups genotyped at 364,470 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Here we show that Native Americans descend from at least three streams of Asian gene flow. Most descend entirely from a single ancestral population that we call ?First American?. However, speakers of Eskimo?Aleut languages from the Arctic inherit almost half their ancestry from a second stream of Asian gene flow, and the Na-Dene-speaking Chipewyan from Canada inherit roughly one-tenth of their ancestry from a third stream. We show that the initial peopling followed a southward expansion facilitated by the coast, with sequential population splits and little gene flow after divergence, especially in South America. A major exception is in Chibchan speakers on both sides of the Panama isthmus, who have ancestry from both North and South America. Fil: Reich, David. Harvard Medical School; Estados Unidos Fil: Patterson, Nick. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados Unidos Fil: Campbell, Desmond. Dept Genet, Evol & Environment, Univ. College London; Reino Unido Fil: Tandon, Arti. Harvard Medical School; Estados Unidos Fil: Mazieres, Stéphane. Dept Genet, Evol & Environment, Univ. College London; Reino Unido. Aix-marseille Université/cnrs/efs; Francia Fil: Ray, Nicolas. University Of Geneva; Suiza Fil: Parra, Maria V. Colegio Universitario de Londres. Department Of Genetics, Evolution And Enviroment; Reino Unido. Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia; Colombia Fil: Rojas, Winston. ...