Roca-Rada Xavier, Souilmi Yassine, Teixeira João C, Llamas Bastien
Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
Genes (Basel). 2020 Nov 13;11(11):1346. doi: 10.3390/genes11111346.
Mesoamerica is a historically and culturally defined geographic area comprising current central and south Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and border regions of Honduras, western Nicaragua, and northwestern Costa Rica. The permanent settling of Mesoamerica was accompanied by the development of agriculture and pottery manufacturing (2500 BCE-150 CE), which led to the rise of several cultures connected by commerce and farming. Hence, Mesoamericans probably carried an invaluable genetic diversity partly lost during the Spanish conquest and the subsequent colonial period. Mesoamerican ancient DNA (aDNA) research has mainly focused on the study of mitochondrial DNA in the Basin of Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula and its nearby territories, particularly during the Postclassic period (900-1519 CE). Despite limitations associated with the poor preservation of samples in tropical areas, recent methodological improvements pave the way for a deeper analysis of Mesoamerica. Here, we review how aDNA research has helped discern population dynamics patterns in the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican context, how it supports archaeological, linguistic, and anthropological conclusions, and finally, how it offers new working hypotheses.
中美洲是一个历史和文化上定义的地理区域，包括当今墨西哥中部和南部、伯利兹、危地马拉、萨尔瓦多以及洪都拉斯边境地区、尼加拉瓜西部和哥斯达黎加西北部。中美洲的永久定居伴随着农业和陶器制造的发展（公元前2500年 - 公元150年），这导致了几种通过商业和农业联系起来的文化的兴起。因此，中美洲人可能携带了在西班牙征服及随后的殖民时期部分丧失的宝贵遗传多样性。中美洲古代DNA（aDNA）研究主要集中在墨西哥盆地、尤卡坦半岛及其附近地区线粒体DNA的研究，特别是在古典时期之后（公元900 - 1519年）。尽管热带地区样本保存不佳存在局限性，但最近的方法改进为更深入分析中美洲铺平了道路。在这里，我们回顾了aDNA研究如何有助于辨别前哥伦布时期中美洲背景下的人口动态模式，它如何支持考古学、语言学和人类学结论，以及最后，它如何提供新的工作假设。
