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

美洲的殖民化和印第安人的史前运动一直是美国考古学家关注的中心问题。虽然研究主要集中在考古学和语言学证据上，但最近遗传证据也被应用于这些问题。该项目旨在利用从至少47个古代美洲原住民的骨骼材料中提取的线粒体DNA，这些骨骼材料是从内华达州西部斯蒂尔沃特沼泽和金字塔湖边缘的考古遗址中挖掘出来的，距今约290年至9500年，从基因上表征内华达州西部史前美洲原住民。大多数现代印第安人属于四种母系遗传的线粒体谱系之一，其频率在语言和地理群体中差异很大。这四种线粒体谱系在古代个体中的分布将被表征，任何其他谱系的存在也将被表征。还将收集来自线粒体高变区（D-Loop）的高分辨率序列数据。根据线粒体谱系的频率和序列数据的系统发育分析，将这些古代美洲原住民与现代美洲原住民进行比较，应该有助于解决当前关于现代努米克语民族进入大盆地的存在和时间以及该地区前努米克居民身份的争论。此外，对这些数据的分析可能有助于确定（或划定）可能的亚洲源人群，创始人效应或瓶颈的存在，以及促成美洲人口的迁移事件的数量。

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.