Understanding the Evolutionary History of Ancient Indigenous Individuals in Uruguay Public

Abstract

Recent technological advances have allowed the frequent use of the human population genetics field to reconstruct human histories. Using modern and ancient DNA, genetics complements historical and archaeological accounts of population histories. In this study, human population genetics methods will be applied to further research the evolutionary history of ancient Indigenous individuals in the Uruguay region and other ancient genomes from the Americas. The objective of this study was to conduct archaeogenomic work by presenting high- coverage whole genomes from an archaeological site in Rocha, Uruguay, dating from ~1,450 to ~668 years before present. This data represents the first ancient genomic DNA from the region and could hopefully provide a starting point to examine the evolutionary history of the ancient Indigenous people of Uruguay and spark conversation about the use of genetics and identity. Sequenced DNA from the ancient individuals of interest and genomes previously published were used to answer the objective. Various computational analyses were performed, such as a principal component analysis (PCA), an admixture plot, and a maximum likelihood tree. The results from the computational studies had two interesting findings. First, in terms of relatedness between the ancient individuals of interest and other ancient individuals from the Americas, there seems to be a relationship between the ancient individuals from Brazil and Panama, as they were closely related to the ancient individuals from the Uruguay region. The results also showed that there might be an ancestral lineage in South America that has potentially never been seen before due to the lack of data in South America. These results question the concept of race and identity, making the definition more nuanced with the addition of genetics. Overall, these results broaden our knowledge of the Indigenous populations in Uruguay, allowing further conversation in the future. 

Table of Contents

Introduction..................................................1

Literature Review...........................................3

European Contact and Missionary Work..........3

Extinction of Indigenous Populations.............8

Archaeological Evidence..............................11

Methods.....................................................15

Objectives...................................................15

Archaeology and Samples............................16

Ancient DNA Extraction..............................17

DNA Sequencing.........................................18

Results and Discussion................................21

Principal Component Analysis (PCA)............21

Admixture..................................................22

Maximum Likelihood Tree...........................24

Genetics and Identity..................................25

Conclusion.................................................28

References..................................................29

Figures

1: Table of modern and ancient populations used in analysis....................................................20

2: PCA Projection of Indigenous individuals from Uruguay region.............................................21

3: Admixture Graph showing ancestry.....................................................................................22

4: Map of ancient and modern genomes used in analysis..........................................................23

5: Maximum Likelihood Tree showing common ancestry..........................................................24 

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Anthropology
Degree	B.S.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Biology, Genetics Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Physical
Mot-clé	South America European Colonization Ancient DNA
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Lindo, John, Emory University
Committee Members	Hosbey, Justin, Emory University Benítez, Marcela, Emory University

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