title: Genetic evidence for two founding populations of the Americas.
abstract: Genetic studies have consistently indicated a single common origin of Native American groups from Central and South America. However, some morphological studies have suggested a more complex picture, whereby the northeast Asian affinities of present-day Native Americans contrast with a distinctive morphology seen in some of the earliest American skeletons, which share traits with present-day Australasians (indigenous groups in Australia, Melanesia, and island Southeast Asia). Here we analyse genome-wide data to show that some Amazonian Native Americans descend partly from a Native American founding population that carried ancestry more closely related to indigenous Australians, New Guineans and Andaman Islanders than to any present-day Eurasians or Native Americans. This signature is not present to the same extent, or at all, in present-day Northern and Central Americans or in a ∼12,600-year-old Clovis-associated genome, suggesting a more diverse set of founding populations of the Americas than previously accepted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.|Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.
authors.forename: Pontus
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Skoglund
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.|Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Swapan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mallick
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Maria Cátira
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Bortolini
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.|Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.
authors.forename: Niru
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chennagiri
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Genética e Biologia Evolutiva, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508-090, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Tábita
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hünemeier
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Paraná, 81531-980 Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Maria Luiza
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Petzl-Erler
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Francisco Mauro
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Salzano
authors.affiliation: Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.|Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Reich
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia / Q000208:ethnology; D002489:Central America / Q000208:ethnology; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007197:Indians, Central American / Q000235:genetics*; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000235:genetics; D007199:Indians, South American / Q000235:genetics*; D009512:New Guinea / Q000208:ethnology; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography; D013020:South America / Q000208:ethnology