title: The initial peopling of the Americas: a growing number of founding mitochondrial genomes from Beringia.
abstract: Pan-American mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup C1 has been recently subdivided into three branches, two of which (C1b and C1c) are characterized by ages and geographical distributions that are indicative of an early arrival from Beringia with Paleo-Indians. In contrast, the estimated ages of C1d--the third subset of C1--looked too young to fit the above scenario. To define the origin of this enigmatic C1 branch, we completely sequenced 63 C1d mitochondrial genomes from a wide range of geographically diverse, mixed, and indigenous American populations. The revised phylogeny not only brings the age of C1d within the range of that of its two sister clades, but reveals that there were two C1d founder genomes for Paleo-Indians. Thus, the recognized maternal founding lineages of Native Americans are at least 15, indicating that the overall number of Beringian or Asian founder mitochondrial genomes will probably increase extensively when all Native American haplogroups reach the same level of phylogenetic and genomic resolution as obtained here for C1d.
authors.affiliation: Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115, USA.
authors.forename: Ugo A
authors.initials: UA
authors.lastname: Perego
authors.forename: Norman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Angerhofer
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pala
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Olivieri
authors.forename: Hovirag
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lancioni
authors.forename: Baharak
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hooshiar Kashani
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Carossa
authors.forename: Jayne E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Ekins
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gómez-Carballa
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.forename: Bettina
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Corach
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Babudri
authors.forename: Fausto
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Panara
authors.forename: Natalie M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Myres
authors.forename: Walther
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Parson
authors.forename: Ornella
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Semino
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Salas
authors.forename: Scott R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Woodward
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Achilli
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Torroni
mesh_terms: D000569:Americas; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015894:Genome, Human; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial