Mitochondrial population genomics supports a single pre-Clovis origin with a coastal route for the peopling of the Americas.

ABSTRACT: It is well accepted that the Americas were the last continents reached by modern humans, most likely through Beringia. However, the precise time and mode of the colonization of the New World remain hotly disputed issues. Native American populations exhibit almost exclusively five mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups (A-D and X). Haplogroups A-D are also frequent in Asia, suggesting a northeastern Asian origin of these lineages. However, the differential pattern of distribution and frequency of haplogroup X led some to suggest that it may represent an independent migration to the Americas. Here we show, by using 86 complete mitochondrial genomes, that all Native American haplogroups, including haplogroup X, were part of a single founding population, thereby refuting multiple-migration mode

SUBMITTER: Fagundes NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2427228 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature