Microsatellites provide evidence for Y chromosome diversity among the founders of the New World

Recently, Y chromosome markers have begun to be used to study Native American origins. Available data have been interpreted as indicating that the colonizers of the New World carried a single founder haplotype. However, these early studies have been based on a few, mostly complex polymorphisms of insufficient resolution to determine whether observed diversity stems from admixture or diversity among the colonizers. Because the interpretation of Y chromosomal variation in the New World depends on founding diversity, it is important to develop marker systems with finer resolution. Here we evaluate the hypothesis of a single-founder Y haplotype for Amerinds by using 11 Y-specific markers in five Colombian Amerind populations. Two of these markers (DYS271, DYS287) are reliable indicators of admixture and detected three non-Amerind chromosomes in our sample. Two other markers (DYS199, M19) are single-nucleotide polymorphisms mostly restricted to Native Americans. The relatedness of chromosomes defined by these two markers was evaluated by constructing haplotypes with seven microsatellite loci (DYS388 to 394). The microsatellite backgrounds found on the two haplogroups defined by marker DYS199 demonstrate the existence of at least two Amerind founder haplotypes, one of them (carrying allele DYS199 T) largely restricted to Native Americans. The estimated age and distribution of these haplogroups places them among the founders of the New World.

Biogeographic range expansion into South America by Coccidioides immitis mirrors New World patterns of human migration

Long-distance population dispersal leaves its characteristic signature in genomes, namely, reduced diversity and increased linkage between genetic markers. This signature enables historical patterns of range expansion to be traced. Herein, we use microsatellite loci from the human pathogen Coccidioides immitis to show that genetic diversity in this fungus is geographically partitioned throughout North America. In contrast, analyses of South American C. immitis show that this population is genetically depauperate and was founded from a single North American population centered in Texas. Variances of allele distributions show that South American C. immitis have undergone rapid population growth, consistent with an epidemic increase in postcolonization population size. Herein, we estimate the introduction into South America to have occurred within the last 9,000–140,000 years. This range increase parallels that of Homo sapiens. Because of known associations between Amerindians and this fungus, we suggest that the colonization of South America by C. immitis represents a relatively recent and rapid codispersal of a host and its pathogen.

Reduction of two functional gamma-globin genes to one: an evolutionary trend in New World monkeys (infraorder Platyrrhini).

Nucleotide sequences were determined for the gamma1- and gamma2-globin loci from representatives of the seven anciently separated clades in the three extant platyrrhine families (Atelidae, Pitheciidae, and Cebidae). These sequences revealed an evolutionary trend in New World monkeys either to inactivate the gamma1 gene or to fuse it with the gamma2 gene, i.e. to have only one functional fetally expressed gamma gene. This trend is clearly evident in six of the seven clades: (i) it occurred in atelids by deletion of most of the gamma1 gene in the basal ancestor of this clade; (ii-iv) in pitheciid titi, saki, and cebid capuchin monkeys by potentially debilitating nucleotide substitutions in the proximal CCAAT box of the gamma1 promoters and (v and vi) in cebid owl and squirrel monkeys by crossovers that fused 5' sequence from gamma1 with 3' sequence from gamma2. In the five clades with gamma1 and gamma2 loci separated by intergenic sequences (the fifth clade being the cebid marmosets), the gamma2 genes retained an unaltered proximal CCAAT motif and their gamma2 promoters accumulated fewer nucleotide substitutions than did the gamma1 promoters. Thus, phylogenetic considerations indicate that the stem platyrrhines, ancestral to all New World monkeys, had gamma2 as the primary fetally expressed gamma gene. A further inference is that when the earlier stem anthropoid gamma gene duplicated, gamma2 (at its greater downstream distance from epsilon) could evade embryonic activation by the locus control region but could be fetally activated once released by regulatory mutations from fetal repressors.

Unforeseen Americas: the making of New World societies in anthropological perspective.

The European discovery and settlement of the Americas revealed unforeseen dimensions and gave rise to unpremeditated ways of coping with the resulting problems. This paper traces out the enduring social and cultural implications of this foundational encounter.

Fate of a redundant gamma-globin gene in the atelid clade of New World monkeys: implications concerning fetal globin gene expression.

Conclusive evidence was provided that gamma 1, the upstream of the two linked simian gamma-globin loci (5'-gamma 1-gamma 2-3'), is a pseudogene in a major group of New World monkeys. Sequence analysis of PCR-amplified genomic fragments of predicted sizes revealed that all extant genera of the platyrrhine family Atelidae [Lagothrix (woolly monkeys), Brachyteles (woolly spider monkeys), Ateles (spider monkeys), and Alouatta (howler monkeys)] share a large deletion that removed most of exon 2, all of intron 2 and exon 3, and much of the 3' flanking sequence of gamma 1. The fact that two functional gamma-globin genes were not present in early ancestors of the Atelidae (and that gamma 1 was the dispensible gene) suggests that for much or even all of their evolution, platyrrhines have had gamma 2 as the primary fetally expressed gamma-globin gene, in contrast to catarrhines (e.g., humans and chimpanzees) that have gamma 1 as the primary fetally expressed gamma-globin gene. Results from promoter sequences further suggest that all three platyrrhine families (Atelidae, Cebidae, and Pitheciidae) have gamma 2 rather than gamma 1 as their primary fetally expressed gamma-globin gene. The implications of this suggestion were explored in terms of how gene redundancy, regulatory mutations, and distance of each gamma-globin gene from the locus control region were possibly involved in the acquisition and maintenance of fetal, rather than embryonic, expression.

Western Strategic Poverty: The Ukrainian Crisis and the New World Order. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 14 Special Issue, March 2014

From Introduction. The Ukrainian crisis, which deepened in February with the invasion of the Crimean peninsula by Russia, has exposed a serious poverty of strategy and leadership from Europe and the US. Such a lack of strategic vision in responding to the Ukrainian crisis, considered by Nicholas Burns among others, as one of the greatest crises in Europe since 1991, diverges between the European Union and the US. It is undeniable that the western leadership is unable to get its act together. In the US, the perpetual fratricide between the republicans and democrats over anything is affecting the development and implementation of sound foreign policies, while in the EU, there is no clear European leadership emerging, neither from the 28 Member States nor the High Representative and Presidents of the Council and Commission. The EU is once again facing its perpetual policy of risk aversion. On the one hand, the US remains conflicted in identifying its identity in this post-liberal world order, while the EU difficulty faces the inevitable limitation of its soft power. With a West in crisis, no decent strategy and/or policy to unravel, or at least contain, the Ukrainian crisis can emerge in this axiomatic moment with the making of the new world order.

The “New World Order”: From Unilateralism to Cosmopolitanism. CES Germany & Europe Working Papers, no. 04.1, 26 January, 2004

On January 26, 2004, the topic of the CES-Berlin Dialogues was "The 'New World Order': From Unilateralism to Cosmopolitanism." It was the second in a series of four meetings organized in Berlin under the med_title 'Redefining Justice.' The session was intended to examine successful and failed arenas of cooperation between the US and Europe; political misunderstandings and conscious manipulation; and models for future transatlantic relations. The presenters were Jeffrey Herf, Professor of History, University of Maryland, and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Neyer, Professor of International Political Economy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, and Heisenberg Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the Freie Universität Berlin. Jeffrey Herf was asked to speak on the basic tenets of U.S. foreign policy in the administration of President George W. Bush, and Jürgen Neyer focused on the European view of international relations and conduct in the period since the invasion of Iraq.

Christopher Columbus and the New world of his discovery; a narrative

Mode of access: Internet.