Affiliations 

  • 1 Laboratório de Biodiversidade e Evolução Molecular (LBEM), Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos 6627, 31270-010 Belo Horizonte, Brazil; The Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA, UK
  • 2 The Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA, UK
  • 3 Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Department of Forensic Genetics, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  • 4 Centro de Genética y Biología Molecular (CGBM), Instituto de Investigación, Facultad de Medicina Humana, Universidad de San Martin de Porres, 15009 Lima, Peru; The Earlham Institute, NR4 7UG Norwich, UK
  • 5 Laboratório de Biodiversidade e Evolução Molecular (LBEM), Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos 6627, 31270-010 Belo Horizonte, Brazil
  • 6 The Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA, UK; Department of Genetics, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tianjin Medical University, 300070 Tianjin, China
  • 7 Q Nordic Independent Researchers; Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion (AHKR), University of Bergen, Norway
  • 8 Q Nordic Independent Researchers
  • 9 Translational Medicine Unit, Central University of Ecuador, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Iquique N14-121 y Sodiro-Itchimbía, Sector El Dorado, 170403 Quito, Ecuador
  • 10 Universidad de las Americas, Av. de los Granados E12-41, 170513 Quito, Ecuador
  • 11 Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Av. Villazón 1995, 2008 La Paz, Bolivia
  • 12 The Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA, UK; Monash University Malaysia Genomics Facility, Tropical Medicine and Biology Multidisciplinary Platform, 47500 Bandar Sunway, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia; School of Science, Monash University Malaysia, 47500 Bandar Sunway, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
  • 13 Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, CB2 1QH Cambridge, UK; Estonian Biocentre, 51010 Tartu, Estonia
  • 14 Centro de Genética y Biología Molecular (CGBM), Instituto de Investigación, Facultad de Medicina Humana, Universidad de San Martin de Porres, 15009 Lima, Peru
  • 15 Laboratório de Biodiversidade e Evolução Molecular (LBEM), Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos 6627, 31270-010 Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Electronic address: fsantos@icb.ufmg.br
  • 16 The Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA, UK. Electronic address: cts@sanger.ac.uk
Curr Biol, 2019 01 07;29(1):149-157.e3.
PMID: 30581024 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.11.029

Abstract

The Americas were the last inhabitable continents to be occupied by humans, with a growing multidisciplinary consensus for entry 15-25 thousand years ago (kya) from northeast Asia via the former Beringia land bridge [1-4]. Autosomal DNA analyses have dated the separation of Native American ancestors from the Asian gene pool to 23 kya or later [5, 6] and mtDNA analyses to ∼25 kya [7], followed by isolation ("Beringian Standstill" [8, 9]) for 2.4-9 ky and then a rapid expansion throughout the Americas. Here, we present a calibrated sequence-based analysis of 222 Native American and relevant Eurasian Y chromosomes (24 new) from haplogroups Q and C [10], with four major conclusions. First, we identify three to four independent lineages as autochthonous and likely founders: the major Q-M3 and rarer Q-CTS1780 present throughout the Americas, the very rare C3-MPB373 in South America, and possibly the C3-P39/Z30536 in North America. Second, from the divergence times and Eurasian/American distribution of lineages, we estimate a Beringian Standstill duration of 2.7 ky or 4.6 ky, according to alternative models, and entry south of the ice sheet after 19.5 kya. Third, we describe the star-like expansion of Q-M848 (within Q-M3) starting at 15 kya [11] in the Americas, followed by establishment of substantial spatial structure in South America by 12 kya. Fourth, the deep branches of the Q-CTS1780 lineage present at low frequencies throughout the Americas today [12] may reflect a separate out-of-Beringia dispersal after the melting of the glaciers at the end of the Pleistocene.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.