Evolutionary Responses to a Constructed Niche: Ancient Mesoamericans as a Model of Gene-Culture Coevolution

Hünemeier, Tábita; Amorim, Carlos Eduardo Guerra; Azevedo, Soledad; Contini, Veronica; Acuña-Alonzo, Víctor; Rothhammer, Francisco; Dugoujon, Jean-Michel; Mazières, Stephane; Barrantes, Ramiro; Villarreal-Molina, María Teresa; Paixão-Côrtes, Vanessa Rodrigues; Salzano, Francisco M.; Canizales-Quinteros, Samuel; Ruiz-Linares, Andres; Bortolini, Maria Cátira

(d) Allele frequencies vs. maize domestication. A significant correlation was observed between the ABCA1*230Cys allele frequencies and the distribution of the Zea pollen relics in Mesoamerica (Figure 2 ; r = 0.9, p = 0.002). It is important to note that the populations used in the correlation analysis performed here (Zapotec, Maya, Nahuatl, Kaqchikel-Quiche, Totonac, Guaymí, and Cabecar) were investigated for microsatellites and other genetic markers in previous studies conducted by our and other groups [27, 55, 56] . These studies indicated that these populations have a substantial Amerindian substrate, a generally small European contribution, and almost no African influence. For instance, Wang et al. [27] showed that the Maya and Guaymí showed the highest and the lowest numbers of individuals with some level of recent European and African admixture, respectively. This indicates an opposite trend from what would be expected if the level of admixture with non-Indians was influencing our findings, since the variant allele is absent in Europeans and Africans.