Y-chromosome Peruvian origin of the 500-year-old Inca child mummy sacrificed in Cerro Aconcagua (Argentina)

A Paleogenomic Reconstruction of the Deep Population History of the Andes

“…The dataset also highlights a case of extreme mobility during the Inca period. Published data from an Inca culture-associated boy found in the Southern Andes ( Moreno-Mayar et al., 2018b ) ( Argentina_Aconcagua_500BP ) is most closely related to NorthPeruCoast ( Figure 3 ; Table S3 C), reflecting long-distance movement of the child for his sacrifice ( Gómez-Carballa et al., 2015 , Llamas et al., 2016 , Salas et al., 2018 ), likely from the same region as the two Inca period NorthPeruCoast -related Cusco_Torontoy individuals, as they form a clade with each other in qpWave analyses ( Table S7 B). This suggests that a particular site in the North Peru coastal region was likely important for the Inca (differing from prior reports that suggested the Inca sacrifice was from the Central Coast) ( Gómez-Carballa et al., 2015 , Llamas et al., 2016 , Salas et al., 2018 ).…”

Inka Child Mummy Found in Cerro Aconcagua (Argentina) Traced Back to Populations of the Northern Peruvian Coast through Y-Chromosome Analysis

“…Both lineages have a pan-American distribution and are believed to have originated in Beringia more than 15,000 years ago [6,9,10]. A preliminary analysis of these uniparental DNA markers suggested that this mummy may be related to individuals from the southern Andes region of Peru [7,8]. However, a recent paleogenetic study [11] compared the ancient DNA with contemporary data from the Central Andes and found that the genomic profile of the child mummy was more closely related to the population from the northern Peruvian coast than to that of the Andean region.…”

“…The dual combination of Y-chromosome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and Y-STR analyses allows scholars to refine the genealogies within or between human population groups. Due to the advantages of these Y-chromosome markers, the child mummy's DNA has been subjected to investigation in a similar way to what was performed with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) [7,8]. Regarding this, by maternal line, in the autochthonous South American population, four typical founder haplogroups were found, A2, B2, C1, and D1/D4h3, whose frequencies vary depending on the geography and demographic history of a subpopulation, although B2 is a prevalent lineage in the Central Andes.…”

“…Previous genetic investigations have indicated that the Inka child of Aconcagua descended from Native Americans bearing the haplogroups C1b and Q-M3 from their maternal (mtDNA) and paternal (Y-chromosome) lineages, respectively [7,8]. Both lineages have a pan-American distribution and are believed to have originated in Beringia more than 15,000 years ago [6,9,10].…”

Biogeographical informativeness of Y-STR haplotypes

“…BGA can be also explored from uniparental markers using e.g., phylogeographic [6,7] or statistical approaches [8,9]. The main aim of the present study is to explore the BGA content of Y-STR haplotypes that represent worldwide populations.…”