Population Histories and Genomic Diversity of South American Natives

Overview

Journal Mol Biol Evol

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Biology

Date 2021 Dec 7

PMID 34875092

Citations 9

Authors

Marcos Araujo Castro E Silva

Tiago Ferraz

Caina M Couto-Silva

Renan B Lemes

Kelly Nunes

David Comas

Tabita Hunemeier

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

South America is home to one of the most culturally diverse present-day native populations. However, the dispersion pattern, genetic substructure, and demographic complexity within South America are still poorly understood. Based on genome-wide data of 58 native populations, we provide a comprehensive scenario of South American indigenous groups considering the genomic, environmental, and linguistic data. Clear patterns of genetic structure were inferred among the South American natives, presenting at least four primary genetic clusters in the Amazonian and savanna regions and three clusters in the Andes and Pacific coast. We detected a cline of genetic variation along a west-east axis, contradicting a hard Andes-Amazon divide. This longitudinal genetic variation seemed to have been shaped by both serial population bottlenecks and isolation by distance. Results indicated that present-day South American substructures recapitulate ancient macroregional ancestries and western Amazonia groups show genetic evidence of cultural exchanges that led to language replacement in precontact times. Finally, demographic inferences pointed to a higher resilience of the western South American groups regarding population collapses caused by the European invasion and indicated precontact population reductions and demic expansions in South America.

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