Artigo de periódico
Genetic variation and population structure in native americans
Autor
Wang, Sijia
Lewis Junior, Cecil M.
Jakobsson, Mattias
Ramachandran, Sohini
Ray, Nicolas
Bedoya, Gabriel
Rojas, Winston
Parra, María V.
Molina, Julio A.
Gallo, Carla
Mazzotti, Guido
Poletti, Giovanni
Hill, Kim R.
Hurtado, Ana Magdalena
Labuda, Damian
Klitz, William
Barrantes, Ramiro
Bortolini, Maria Cátira
Salzano, Francisco Mauro
Petzl-Erler, Maria Luiza
Tsuneto, Luiza T.
Llop, Elena
Rothhammer, Francisco
Excoffier, Laurent
Feldman, Marcus W.
Rosenberg, Noah A.
Ruiz-Linares, Andres
Resumen
We examined genetic diversity and population structure in the American landmass using 678 autosomal microsatellite markers genotyped in 422 individuals representing 24 Native American populations sampled from North, Central, and South America. These data were analyzed jointly with similar data available in 54 other indigenous populations worldwide, including an additional five Native American groups. The Native American populations have lower genetic diversity and greater differentiation than populations from other continental regions. We observe gradients both of decreasing genetic diversity as a function of geographic distance from the Bering Strait and of decreasing genetic similarity to Siberians—signals of the southward dispersal of human populations from the northwestern tip of the Americas. We also observe evidence of: (1) a higher level of diversity and lower level of population structure in western South America compared to eastern South America, (2) a relative lack of differentiation between Mesoamerican and Andean populations, (3) a scenario in which coastal routes were easier for migrating peoples to traverse in comparison with inland routes, and (4) a partial agreement on a local scale between genetic similarity and the linguistic classification of populations. These findings offer new insights into the process of population dispersal and differentiation during the peopling of the Americas.