Y chromosome sequences reveal a short Beringian Standstill, rapid expansion, and early population structure of Native American founders

• Published in: Current Biology
• Main Authors: Pinotti, Thomaz, Bergström, Anders, Geppert, Maria, Bawn, Matt, Ohasi, Dominique, Shi, Wentao, Lacerda, Daniela R., Solli, Arne, Norstedt, Jakob, Reed, Kate, Dawtry, Kim, González-Andrade, Fabricio, Paz-y-Miño, Cesar, Revollo, Susana, Cuellar, Cinthia, Jota, Marilza S., Santos, José E., Ayub, Qasim, Kivisild, Toomas, Sandoval, José R., Fujita, Ricardo, Xue, Yali, Roewer, Lutz, Santos, Fabrício R., Tyler-Smith, Chris
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Beringia; Native Americans; phylogeography; pre-Columbian settlement of Americas; Y chromosome lineages; Kya; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://research.monash.edu/en/publications/5c5d1b77-bdce-4e89-a6a5-d4426ae65c53; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.11.029; https://researchmgt.monash.edu/ws/files/354656294/344995418_oa.pdf; http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85059608002&partnerID=8YFLogxK

The Americas were the last inhabitable continents to be occupied by humans, with a growing multidisciplinary consensus for entry 15–25 thousand years ago (kya) from northeast Asia via the former Beringia land bridge [1–4]. Autosomal DNA analyses have dated the separation of Native American ancestors from the Asian gene pool to 23 kya or later [5, 6] and mtDNA analyses to ∼25 kya [7], followed by isolation (“Beringian Standstill” [8, 9]) for 2.4–9 ky and then a rapid expansion throughout the Americas. Here, we present a calibrated sequence-based analysis of 222 Native American and relevant Eurasian Y chromosomes (24 new) from haplogroups Q and C [10], with four major conclusions. First, we identify three to four independent lineages as autochthonous and likely founders: the major Q-M3 and rarer Q-CTS1780 present throughout the Americas, the very rare C3-MPB373 in South America, and possibly the C3-P39/Z30536 in North America. Second, from the divergence times and Eurasian/American distribution of lineages, we estimate a Beringian Standstill duration of 2.7 ky or 4.6 ky, according to alternative models, and entry south of the ice sheet after 19.5 kya. Third, we describe the star-like expansion of Q-M848 (within Q-M3) starting at 15 kya [11] in the Americas, followed by establishment of substantial spatial structure in South America by 12 kya. Fourth, the deep branches of the Q-CTS1780 lineage present at low frequencies throughout the Americas today [12] may reflect a separate out-of-Beringia dispersal after the melting of the glaciers at the end of the Pleistocene.