Evolutionary History of Indigenous American People

The American continent, characterized by its vast geographical range spanning northern to southern latitudes, was among the last regions populated during the global expansion of Homo sapiens. Despite this late arrival, internal dispersal across the continent occurred at a remarkable speed following the Out of Beringia migration. The settlement history of the Americas has been shaped by diverse evolutionary forces, including extreme and recurrent population bottlenecks, both voluntary and forced migrations, natural selection, gene-culture coevolution, and significant shifts in population structure due to European invasion and subsequent colonization. Indigenous American and admixed populations remain underrepresented in medical and evolutionary genomic research. Our work comprises thousands of high-coverage genomic data to address this gap from the evolutionary history of the Indigenous and admixed American population. Our findings shed light on the evolutionary processes that shaped the genetic diversity of the Americas, from the initial settlement approximately 15,000 years ago to the transformative impacts of European and African contact in recent centuries.

Phenotypic plasticity and adaptive evolution in Mediterranean gypsum endemics: insights into climate change response.