Contrasting patterns of nuclear and mtDNA diversity in Native American populations.

Ning Ning Yang (1) , Stéphane Mazières (2) , Claudio Bravi (3) , Nicolas Ray (4) , Sijia Wang (5) , Mari-Wyn Burley (1) , Gabriel Bedoya (6) , Winston Rojas (6) , Maria Parra (6) , Julio Molina (7) , Carla Gallo (6) , Giovanni Poletti (6) , Kim Hill (8) , Ana Hurtado (8) , Maria Petzl-Erler (9) , Luiza Tsuneto (9) , William Klitz (8) , Ramiro Barrantes (10) , Elena Llop (11) , Francisco Rothhammer (11) , Damian Labuda (12) , Francisco Mauro Salzano (13) , Maria C. Bortolini (13) , Laurent Excoffier (14) , Jean-Michel Dugoujon (2) , Andrés Ruiz-Linares (1)

1 UCL-GEE - Dept of Genetics, Evolution and Environment [London]
2 AMIS - Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de Synthèse
3 IMBICE - Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celular [La Plata]
4 EnviroSPACE Laboratory - Forel Institute
5 Harvard FAS Center for Systems Biology
6 Laboratorio de Genética Molecular
7 Centro de Investigaciones Biomédicas de Guatemala
8 School of Human Evolution and Social Change
9 Departamento de Genética
10 Escuela de Biologia
11 Facultad de Medicina & Instituto de Alta Investigacion
12 CHU Sainte Justine [Montréal]
13 Departamento de Genética
14 CMPG

We report an integrated analysis of nuclear (autosomal, X- and Y-chromosome) short tandem repeat (STR) data and mtDNA D-loop sequences obtained in the same set of 22 Native populations from across the Americas. A north to south gradient of decreasing population diversity was observed, in agreement with a settlement of the Americas from the extreme northwest of the continent. This correlation is stronger with "least cost distances," which consider the coasts as facilitators of migration. Continent-wide estimates of population structure are highest for the Y-chromosome and lowest for the autosomes, consistent with the effective size of the different marker systems examined. Population differentiation is highest in East South America and lowest in Meso America and the Andean region. Regional analyses suggest a deviation from mutation-drift equilibrium consistent with population expansion in Meso America and the Andes and population contraction in Northwest and East South America. These data hint at an early divergence of Andean and non-Andean South Americans and at a contrasting demographic history for populations from these regions.

Domaines: Anthropologie biologique

Ning Ning Yang, Stéphane Mazières, Claudio Bravi, Nicolas Ray, Sijia Wang, et al.. Contrasting patterns of nuclear and mtDNA diversity in Native American populations.. Annals of Human Genetics, 2010, pp.74(6):525-38. ⟨10.1111/j.1469-1809.2010.00608.x⟩. ⟨hal-00565213⟩