On the number of New World founders: a population genetic portrait of the peopling of the Americas.

ABSTRACT: The founding of New World populations by Asian peoples is the focus of considerable archaeological and genetic research, and there persist important questions on when and how these events occurred. Genetic data offer great potential for the study of human population history, but there are significant challenges in discerning distinct demographic processes. A new method for the study of diverging populations was applied to questions on the founding and history of Amerind-speaking Native American populations. The model permits estimation of founding population sizes, changes in population size, time of population formation, and gene flow. Analyses of data from nine loci are consistent with the general portrait that has emerged from archaeological and other kinds of evidence. The estimated ef

SUBMITTER: Hey J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1131883 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature