Artículo de revista
Arrival of Paleo-Indians to the Southern Cone of South America: New Clues from Mitogenomes
Fecha
2012Registro en:
PLOS ONE December 2012 | Volume 7 | Issue 12 | e51311
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0051311
Autor
Saint Pierre, Michelle de
Gandini, Francesca
Perego, Ugo A.
Bodner, Martin
Corach, Daniel
Angerhofer, Norman
Woodward, Scott R.
Semino, Ornella
Salas, Antonio
Parson, Walther
Moraga Vergara, Mauricio
Achilli, Alessandro
Torroni, Antonio
Olivieri, Anna
Gómez Carballa, Alberto
Institución
Resumen
With analyses of entire mitogenomes, studies of Native American mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation have entered the
final phase of phylogenetic refinement: the dissection of the founding haplogroups into clades that arose in America during
and after human arrival and spread. Ages and geographic distributions of these clades could provide novel clues on the
colonization processes of the different regions of the double continent. As for the Southern Cone of South America, this
approach has recently allowed the identification of two local clades (D1g and D1j) whose age estimates agree with the
dating of the earliest archaeological sites in South America, indicating that Paleo-Indians might have reached that region
from Beringia in less than 2000 years. In this study, we sequenced 46 mitogenomes belonging to two additional clades,
termed B2i2 (former B2l) and C1b13, which were recently identified on the basis of mtDNA control-region data and whose
geographical distributions appear to be restricted to Chile and Argentina. We confirm that their mutational motifs most
likely arose in the Southern Cone region. However, the age estimate for B2i2 and C1b13 (11–13,000 years) appears to be
younger than those of other local clades. The difference could reflect the different evolutionary origins of the distinct South
American-specific sub-haplogroups, with some being already present, at different times and locations, at the very front of
the expansion wave in South America, and others originating later in situ, when the tribalization process had already begun.
A delayed origin of a few thousand years in one of the locally derived populations, possibly in the central part of Chile,
would have limited the geographical and ethnic diffusion of B2i2 and explain the present-day occurrence that appears to be
mainly confined to the Tehuelche and Araucanian-speaking groups.