Genetic Diversity of the Ancient People in Mesoamerica DNAs were extracted from the human remains buried in the Moon Pyramidat archaeological Teotihuacan site in Mexico. Nucleotide sequences of theirmitochondrial D-loop and SNP sites were determined by the PCR-directsequencing. To reveal the genealogy of mitochondrial DNA sequences ofthe individuals buried in the Moon Pyramid and assess their positions amongNative Americans, we first constructed a network of the mitochondrial DNAfrom the contemporary Native Americans; the northern Native Americans(Haida, Bella Coola, and Nuu Chah Nulth), the central Native Americans(Huetar, Kuna, and Ngöbé), and the southern Native Americans (Yanomami,Zoro, Gavião, and Xavante), and compared them with those of the individualsfrom the Moon Pyramid. All of the mitochondrial DNA types from the MoonPyramid individuals were unique, and clear genetic affinities were notobserved between the Moon Pyramid individuals and any of the 10 NativeAmerican populations. To investigate genetic diversity among the contemporarycentral Native American populations, we constructed a phylogenetictree of their mitochondrial DNA sequences using the neighbor-joiningmethod. There was a major mitochondrial DNA sequence common to thesethree central Native American populations. However, there were a relativelysmall number of mitochondrial DNA types in each population, most of whichwere, moreover, unique to each Native American population. Next we comparedthe mitochondrial DNA sequences of the Moon Pyramid individualswith those of the ancient Mesoamerican people, ancient Maya people fromthe classic Copán site. We also used Huetar people as a reference for thecontemporary central Native Americans. The distribution of the mitochondrialDNA types found in the ancient Native Americans is greatly different fromthat found in the contemporary Native Americans. These results show thatgenetic diversity in the ancient Native Americans was not as low as that inthe contemporary Native Americans, suggesting an occurrence of bottleneckin the past. This will be of great interest to Y chromosome enthusiasts.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 13:26:20 +0000
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