A new study published in Nature has built the largest genomic database yet for Indigenous peoples in the Americas, analyzing 199 genomes from individuals from North America to Patagonia and uncovering more than a million genetic variants not previously observed in other populations.
The research, led by the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and the University of São Paulo, included 128 high-coverage whole genomes sequenced from eight Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru. Of the 199 genomes in the full dataset, 128 had never been published before, and the sample covered 53 populations and 31 linguistic families, making it the most extensive map of its kind so far.
The work matters now because Native American populations have long been underrepresented on the human genomic map, leaving large gaps in what is known about how people adapted across the Americas, from the Amazon rainforests to the high altitudes of the Andes. The research is also part of the Indigenous American Genomic Diversity Project, which aims to close those gaps with data drawn from contemporary Indigenous communities and ancient DNA.
The study found genetic signals of natural selection tied to immune response, metabolism, growth and fertility, pointing to a history of adaptation that has been difficult to reconstruct until now. Marcos Araújo Castro e Silva said, “Until now, only two Indigenous Amazonian populations had been genetically characterized, and due to the particular nature of their environment and their isolation, they were not very representative.” That limitation is part of the tension the new database is trying to overcome: earlier work captured only a narrow slice of the region, while this project draws from 45 populations across 28 linguistic families and adds ancient DNA to the picture.
More than 9,000 years ago, the first dispersal and initial divisions among the ancestors of Indigenous Americans took place, setting the stage for the diversity seen today. This study does not settle every question about that deep history, but it gives researchers a far denser map of south america than they have had before, and with it a better chance of tracing how people moved, adapted and survived across the hemisphere.