Archaeogenomic distinctiveness of the Isthmo-Colombian Area

The recently-enriched genomic history of Indigenous groups in the Americas is still meagre concerning continental Central America. Here, we report ten pre-Hispanic (plus two early colonial) genomes and 84 genome-wide profiles from seven groups presently living in Panama. Our analyses reveal that pre-Hispanic demographic events contributed to the extensive genetic structure currently seen in the area, which is also characterized by a distinctive Isthmo-Colombian Indigenous component. This component drives these populations on a specific variability axis and derives from the local admixture of different ancestries of northern North American origin(s). Two of these ancestries were differentially associated to Pleistocene Indigenous groups that also moved into South America leaving heterogenous genetic footprints. An additional Pleistocene ancestry was brought by UPopI, a still unsampled population that remained restricted to the Isthmian area, expanded locally during the early Holocene, and left genomic traces up to the present day

Archaeogenomic distinctiveness of the Isthmo-Colombian area

The recently enriched genomic history of Indigenous groups in the Americas is still meager concerning continental Central America. Here, we report ten pre-Hispanic (plus two early colonial) genomes and 84 genome-wide profiles from seven groups presently living in Panama. Our analyses reveal that pre-Hispanic demographic events contributed to the extensive genetic structure currently seen in the area, which is also characterized by a distinctive Isthmo-Colombian Indigenous component. This component drives these populations on a specific variability axis and derives from the local admixture of different ancestries of northern North American origin(s). Two of these ancestries were differentially associated to Pleistocene Indigenous groups that also moved into South America, leaving heterogenous genetic footprints. An additional Pleistocene ancestry was brought by a still unsampled population of the Isthmus (UPopI) that remained restricted to the Isthmian area, expanded locally during the early Holocene, and left genomic traces up to the present day

The worldwide spread of the tiger mosquito as revealed by mitogenome haplogroup diversity

In the last 40 years, the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus, indigenous to East Asia, has colonized every continent except Antarctica. Its spread is a major public health concern, given that this species is a competent vector for numerous arboviruses, including those causing dengue, chikungunya, West Nile, and the recently emerged Zika fever. To acquire more information on the ancestral source(s) of adventive populations and the overall diffusion process from its native range, we analyzed the mitogenome variation of 27 individuals from representative populations of Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Phylogenetic analyses revealed five haplogroups in Asia, but population surveys appear to indicate that only three of these (A1a1, A1a2, and A1b) were involved in the recent worldwide spread.We also found out that a derived lineage (A1a1a1) within A1a1, which is now common in Italy, most likely arose in North America from an ancestral Japanese source. These different genetic sources now coexist in many of the recently colonized areas, thus probably creating novel genomic combinations which might be one of the causes of the apparently growing ability of A. albopictus to expand its geographical range

A comprehensive, diachronic and comparative picture of the mitogenome variation along the Americas

Native Americans present a remarkable case study in human evolution and population genetics. They belong to one of the few extant human groups whose ancestors entered a vast uninhabited area over a relatively short interval and then apparently remained relatively isolated from other human groups for a considerable period of time before European contact. Their substantial cultural diversity, linguistic complexity, and biological variation has been the subjects of a plethora of studies, whose level of sophistication has consistently grown over the past 40 years, but to date has not yet seen a final consensus among the disciplines involved. After all these years, this debate is still ongoing among scientists regarding major issues such as the number of migratory events, the source populations and arrival timing, and the likely entry routes into the Americas. Even the archaeological evidence is inconsistent as the dating of skeletal remains and Clovis lithic artifacts yielded values of 13- 14,000 years before present (YBP), while other archeological studies reported sites with dating to more than 33,000 YBP. The overall picture is gradually emerging much clearer and detailed thanks to the contributions provided by human genetics and genomics studies. The first pieces were provided by analyses of the so-called "classical" genetic markers; subsequent findings came from the phylogenetic surveys of uniparentally transmitted genetic systems, in particular from mitochondrial DNA; then in the last few years, further valuable details were delivered by a new phase characterized by ancient DNA analyses. Here, we present a comprehensive, diachronic and comparative picture of the mitogenome variation along the double continent. More than 1600 entire mitochondrial DNAs from modern samples (were gathered from literature and unpublished databases and compared with ca. 90 novel ancient pre-European contact mitogenomes (mostly from North America) in order to reconstruct the migratory path(s) of ancient native populations and to evaluate the differential demographic impact of post- European contact in South and North America

The multifaceted genomic history of Ashaninka from Amazonian Peru

Despite its crucial location, the western side of Amazonia between the Andes and the source(s) of the Amazon River is still understudied from a genomic and archaeogenomic point of view, albeit possibly harboring essential information to clarify the complex genetic history of local Indigenous groups and their interactions with nearby regions,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 including central America and the Caribbean.9,10,11,12 Focusing on this key region, we analyzed the genome-wide profiles of 51 Ashaninka individuals from Amazonian Peru, observing an unexpected extent of genomic variation. We identified at least two Ashaninka subgroups with distinctive genomic makeups, which were differentially shaped by the degree and timing of external admixtures, especially with the Indigenous groups from the Andes and the Pacific coast. On a continental scale, Ashaninka ancestors probably derived from a south-north migration of Indigenous groups moving into the Amazonian rainforest from a southeastern area with contributions from the Southern Cone and the Atlantic coast. These ancestral populations diversified in the variegated geographic regions of interior South America, on the eastern side of the Andes, differentially interacting with surrounding coastal groups. In this complex scenario, we also revealed strict connections between the ancestors of present-day Ashaninka, who belong to the Arawakan language family,13 and those Indigenous groups that moved further north into the Caribbean, contributing to the early Ceramic (Saladoid) tradition in the islands.14,1

Overview of the Americas’ First Peopling from a Patrilineal Perspective: New Evidence from the Southern Continent

Uniparental genetic systems are unique sex indicators and complement the study of autosomal diversity by providing landmarks of human migrations that repeatedly shaped the structure of extant populations. Our knowledge of the variation of the male-specific region of the Y chromosome in Native Americans is still rather scarce and scattered, but by merging sequence information from modern and ancient individuals, we here provide a comprehensive and updated phylogeny of the distinctive Native American branches of haplogroups C and Q. Our analyses confirm C-MPB373, C-P39, Q-Z780, Q-M848, and Q-Y4276 as the main founding haplogroups and identify traces of unsuccessful (pre-Q-F1096) or extinct (C-L1373*, Q-YP4010*) Y-chromosome lineages, indicating that haplogroup diversity of the founder populations that first entered the Americas was greater than that observed in the Indigenous component of modern populations. In addition, through a diachronic and phylogeographic dissection of newly identified Q-M848 branches, we provide the first Y-chromosome insights into the early peopling of the South American hinterland (Q-BY104773 and Q-BY15730) and on overlying inland migrations (Q-BY139813