Copyright © 2008 The American Society of Human Genetics. All rights reserved.
The American Journal of Human Genetics, Volume 82, Issue 3, 583-592, 28 February 2008
doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.11.013
Article
Mitochondrial Population Genomics Supports a Single Pre-Clovis Origin with a Coastal Route for the Peopling of the Americas
Nelson J.R. Fagundes1, 2, 7, Ricardo Kanitz1, 7, Roberta Eckert1, Ana C.S. Valls1, Mauricio R. Bogo1, Francisco M. Salzano2, David Glenn Smith3, Wilson A. Silva4, Marco A. Zago4, Andrea K. Ribeiro-dos-Santos5, Sidney E.B. Santos5, Maria Luiza Petzl-Erler6 and Sandro L. Bonatto1, 
, 
1 Faculdade de Biociências, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, 91619-900, Brazil
2 Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, 91501-970, Brazil
3 Molecular Anthropology Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
4 Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, 14049-900, Brazil
5 Departamento de Patologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA, 66075-970, Brazil
6 Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, 81531-990, Brazil
Corresponding author7 These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
It is well accepted that the Americas were the last continents reached by modern humans, most likely through Beringia. However, the precise time and mode of the colonization of the New World remain hotly disputed issues. Native American populations exhibit almost exclusively five mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups (A–D and X). Haplogroups A–D are also frequent in Asia, suggesting a northeastern Asian origin of these lineages. However, the differential pattern of distribution and frequency of haplogroup X led some to suggest that it may represent an independent migration to the Americas. Here we show, by using 86 complete mitochondrial genomes, that all Native American haplogroups, including haplogroup X, were part of a single founding population, thereby refuting multiple-migration models. A detailed demographic history of the mtDNA sequences estimated with a Bayesian coalescent method indicates a complex model for the peopling of the Americas, in which the initial differentiation from Asian populations ended with a moderate bottleneck in Beringia during the last glacial maximum (LGM), around ∼23,000 to ∼19,000 years ago. Toward the end of the LGM, a strong population expansion started ∼18,000 and finished ∼15,000 years ago. These results support a pre-Clovis occupation of the New World, suggesting a rapid settlement of the continent along a Pacific coastal route.
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