Ancient Human Mitochondrial Genome of the Beagle Channel (Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina)

The increasing use of massively parallel sequencing in the study of current and ancient human populations has enabled new approaches to bioanthropological and archaeological issues, although its application on archaeological samples requires the use of technologies that are not easily accessible outside of USA and European research centers. In order to obtain an ancient mitogenome in Argentina, several institutions collaborated to apply massively parallel sequencing and bioinformatic methodologies on an enriched aDNA library of an individual from the Beagle Channel (dated 1,504 ± 46 years BP), a region of particular interest for this line of inquiry. The mitogenome was obtained with an average depth of 8X and its haplotype was assigned to haplogroup D1g. Phylogenetic reconstruction showed a close relationship with a Yámana from Navarino Island and an individual from Hoste Island (Chilean Antarctic Province), the three sharing an ancestor 203-4,439 years ago. These have mutations reported only for current and ancient individuals from the Beagle Channel, and their relationship with the rest of the D1g subhaplogroups is unclear. The results obtained here are consistent with the reduction of mobility in the Fuegian archipelago around ~4,500 years BP that has been proposed based on archaeological evidence.