Researchers have stressed the importance of exploring the genetic information of Indigenous American populations, a historically underrepresented demographic in genomic research.
An international team led by the Institute of Evolutionary Biology partnered with the University of São Paulo and Arizona State University to publish a study analyzing genomes from Indigenous populations across North America to Patagonia.
The research identified more than 1 million genetic variants that had not been previously documented in other populations. Among the findings were genetic signatures of natural selection tied to immune response, metabolism, growth and fertility.
Eduardo Amorim, Assistant Professor at ASU’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change, joined “Arizona Horizon” to provide insight on the dataset.
Amorim compared the study he assisted with to other studies of Indigenous American populations.
“There are other data sets that are sequencing only part of the genome of these individuals. Our study is the largest one and also the most diverse one to sequence the whole genome, so all the genetic information that each individual carries, and also across several different populations,” Amorim said.
Amorim described how surprised he was with how many new genetic variants the dataset uncovered.
“It did surprise us because it is known in population genetics that the smaller populations that have been historically small like the Native American populations have been across their history. They usually harbor less genetic variation than other larger populations like the African populations, so we expected to see very few variants. And this number, although it’s small, it’s much larger than we actually expected,” Amorim said.
