Dissertation Research: Use of Ancient mtDNA D-Loop Sequences to Test Hypotheses of Prehistoric Native American Population Movement

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The colonization of the Americas and prehistoric movements by Native Americans have been central issues for American archaeologists. Although research has centered on archaeological and linguistic evidence, recently genetic evidence has also been applied to these questions. This project seeks to utilize mitochondrial DNA extracted from the skeletal material of at least 47 ancient Native Americans, excavated from archaeological sites in the Stillwater Marsh and the margins of Pyramid Lake in western Nevada which date between approximately 290 and 9500 years before present, to genetically characterize the prehistoric Native Americans of western Nevada. Most modern Native Americans belong to one of four maternally inherited mitochondrial lineages whose frequencies vary significantly among language and geographic groups. The distribution of these four mitochondrial lineages among the ancient individuals will be characterized, as will the existence of any additional lineages. High resolution sequence data from the mitochondrial hypervariable region (D-Loop) will also be gathered. Comparison of these ancient Native Americans to modern Native Americans, based both on the frequency of mitochondrial lineages and phylogenetic analysis of the sequence data, should contribute to the resolution of current debates regarding the existence and timing of the spread of modern Numic-speaking peoples into the Great Basin and the identity of the pre-Numic inhabitants of that region. In addition, analysis of these data may help to identify (or delimit) probable Asian source populations, the presence of founder's effect or a bottleneck, and the number of migration events contributing to the peopling of the Americas.