title: Ancient marine hunter-gatherers from Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego: Diversity and differentiation using uniparentally inherited genetic markers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The human population history from Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego has been of great interest in the context of the American peopling. Different sources of evidence have contributed to the characterization of the local populations, but some main questions about their history remain unsolved. Among the native populations, two marine hunter-gatherers groups inhabited the Patagonian channels below the 478S: Kawéskar and Yámana. Regardless of their geographical proximity and cultural resemblance, their languages were mutually unintelligible. In this study we aim to evaluate the genetic diversity of uniparental genetic markers in both groups and to test if there is a high genetic differentiation between them, mirroring their linguistic differences.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ancient DNA was extracted from 37 samples from both populations. We compared their genetic variability of their mitochondrial lineages and Y-STR as well as with other modern native populations from the area and further north.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed an important differentiation in their maternal lineages: while Kawéskar shows a high frequency of D (80%), Yámana shows a high frequency of C (90%). The analysis of paternal lineages reveals the presence of only Q1a2a1a1 and little variation was found between individuals. Both groups show very low levels of genetic diversity compared with modern populations. We also notice shared and unique mitochondrial DNA variants between modern and ancient samples of Kawéskar and Yámana.
authors.affiliation: Human Genetic Program, ICBM, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, 8380453, Chile.
authors.forename: Constanza
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: de la Fuente
authors.affiliation: Human Genetic Program, ICBM, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, 8380453, Chile.
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Galimany
authors.affiliation: Human Genetic Program, ICBM, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, 8380453, Chile.
authors.forename: Brian M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Kemp
authors.affiliation: Human Genetic Program, ICBM, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, 8380453, Chile.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Judd
authors.affiliation: Human Genetic Program, ICBM, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, 8380453, Chile.
authors.forename: Omar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Reyes
authors.affiliation: Human Genetic Program, ICBM, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, 8380453, Chile.
authors.forename: Mauricio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moraga
mesh_terms: D000885:Anthropology, Physical; D001106:Archaeology; D001118:Argentina; D002677:Chile; D005260:Female; D005819:Genetic Markers / Q000235:genetics*; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers
keywords: Patagonia; ancient DNA; marine hunter-gatherers