First Humans Migrating into Americas Brought Linguistic and Cultural Diversity

The following announcement was written by the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation:

SALT LAKE CITY & PAVIA, Italy - Genetic researchers from the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (SMGF) in Salt Lake City working with scientists from the University of Pavia in Italy today published a study shedding new light on the puzzling question of why Native Americans exhibited such extraordinary linguistic and cultural diversity when the first Europeans arrived in 1492.

Featured on the cover of Current Biology journal, the striking finding by an international team of researchers challenges the traditional idea that the first groups of humans to colonize the Americas came from a single population source, which would imply one language family, technology and culture, when they crossed an Ice Age land bridge connected to Asia 15-17,000 years ago.

By analyzing for the first time at the highest level of molecular resolution two rare lineages of the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from modern Native Americans, geneticists identified separate migratory paths that marked the initial stages of human colonization. Traveling concurrently, one genetic group of Paleo-Indians followed the Pacific coastline route and arrived at the southern tip of South America, while the second group followed an ice-free corridor east of the Rocky Mountains and settled in the Great Plains and Great Lakes regions.

The evidence that separate groups of people with distinctive genetic roots entered the Americas independently at the same time strongly implies linguistic and cultural differences between them. “The origin of the first Americans is very controversial to archaeologists and even more so to linguists,” said study corresponding author Professor Antonio Torroni, heading the University of Pavia group. “Our genetic study reveals a scenario in which more than one language family could have arrived in the Americas with the earliest Paleo-Indians.” Torroni is a world-renowned population geneticist in the field of mtDNA research and the first to identify the major genetic groups to which 95 percent of Native Americans belong.

In March 2008, the same research team published a study that was the first to compile all known Native American mtDNA sequences into a single genetic tree with branches dated. Results showed almost all modern Native Americans descended from six ancestral founding mothers. They used the built-in molecular clock of DNA to establish the time the first humans moved into the Western Hemisphere, finding a narrow window between 15-17,000 years ago.

For both studies researchers combed the Sorenson database—the world’s largest collection of correlated genetic genealogy information containing DNA collected in more than 170 countries—for mtDNA belonging to Native American lineages. Then, using techniques developed at the University of Pavia, the samples were analyzed using a complete-mtDNA genome approach for the first time.

“Six major genetic lineages account for 95 percent of Native American mtDNA and are distributed everywhere in the Americas,” said first author Ugo Perego, director of operations at SMGF. “So we chose to analyze two rare genetic groups and eliminate that ‘statistical background noise.’ In this way, we found patterns that correspond to two separate migration routes.”

Today’s study analyzed two rare genetic groups. D4h3 spread into the Americas along the Pacific coast and, at the same time, X2a migrated inland through an ice-free corridor between the Cordilleran and the Laurentide glaciers. The D4h3 group is rare today in North America, while X2a is found exclusively in the U.S. and Canada, mainly in the Great Lakes and Great Plains regions. The six most common Native American mtDNA lineages are A2, B2, C1b, C1c, C1d and D1.

“This study does not end the debate,” said co-author Dr. Alessandro Achilli, researcher at the University of Pavia and assistant professor at the University of Perugia, “but the implications of our findings are significant. The distinct industries and technologies observed in North American archeological sites might be related to separate genetic groups using different migratory routes rather than being the result of in situ differentiation. Future research will dissect common pan-American lineages into sub-branches, and we do expect distribution of some of these subgroups will parallel that of D4h3 and X2a.”

The study, “Distinctive Paleo-Indian Migration Routes from Beringia Marked by Two Rare MtDNA Haplogroups,” was published online today by Current Biology and will be the cover story for the print version on Jan. 13, 2009.

About Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation

The Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (SMGF; www.smgf.org) is a non-profit research organization that has created the world's largest repository of correlated genetic and genealogical information. The free, publicly available SMGF database currently contains information about more than 7 million ancestors through linked DNA samples and pedigree charts from more than 170 countries, or approximately 90 percent of the nations of the world. The foundation's purpose is to foster a greater sense of identity, connection and belonging among all people by showing how closely we are connected as members of a single human family.

Comments

[Bil Buchanan]

I would be curious whether the pre-hispanic white mummies found in the Peruvian costal tombs at Paracas, Nazca, etc. show any genetic connection to current populations there or elsewhere. I remember reading about these mummies and seeing color photos of them in the 1960s. At that time most of them were housed in the national museum of Peru in Lima. They seemed to be an interesting curiosity at the time. With today's DNA tools, maybe some light can be cast on another ancient mystery.

[Dae Powell]

Stress seems the cause of migration. Whether it is economic, survival, religious or political, it moves people around this globe. Some forces PUSH them away; other forces draw them near. The Americas are rich with resources and opportunities that attract immigrants. I would expect to find many more evidences of cultures attracted to these continents from the "old world."

Happy Dae.
http://ShoeStringGenealogy.com

[Susi C Pentico]

I am most interested in MTdna and Ydna done on the Indian culture. I also remember reading about the white mummies in Peru I beleive it was
many years ago. My concern is because Indians (many were my ancestors) tend to not want bodies disturbed yet we need that DNA information. I believe we need to preserve but we also need to share.
I just wish they would have let GreatGrandma register when she went to register. I have five Indian lines in my ancestry.

SusiCP

[carl salem]

i wish there were some maps with this info showing route of different migratory groups. if they came across the bering strait then is there a group of russians with the same dna as some of the native americans and if they came down from eastern canada where did they originate. sorry if these are bad questions, but i dont know. Carl Salem

[GMF]

Personally, I believe there will never be agreement on the subject. There are honest scholars and obviously also persons who have a special agenda. The mixture will continue to muddy the waters for decades; a personal opinion.

[Larry Carpenter]

From what I've read, some of the first inhabitants of America came from most of the countries of the world, the ancient hebrew, european, Asian, Middle East etc during the ice age, contray to popular belief the Bering Strait was not the only route. They travel along the shorline of the ice down into america, most of their buried and artifacts are under water on the shorline, the sea was much lower during the ice age. Wouldn't it be great if we could find all of that evidence? Maybe during another ice age we will.
They came across the sea also, the Aztecs, carribean, mexico, 6 million people wiped out by a plague. I believe that the americas were inhabited when the human first began to walk....