Confirmation of Mitochondrial Haplotype C4c in Samples from Norris Farms #36, Illinois

Summary

The Norris Farms #36 site in northern Illinois (ca. AD 1300) has been widely featured in archaeological investigations, including foundational ancient DNA analyses. We built on these studies, analyzing mitochondrial DNA hypervariable regions I and II from 98 individuals. The Norris Farms #36 site demonstrates high levels of mitochondrial diversity, with all five major founding lineages present. Included in this diversity are individuals belonging to mitochondrial haplogroup C who demonstrate the absence of the np 16325 deletion, characteristic of rare mitochondrial haplotype C4c. Confirmation of this haplotype requires the presence of multiple mutations throughout the mitochondrial genome. Using whole mitochondrial genome typing and traditional Sanger sequencing we confirmed that several of these individuals belong to haplotype C4c.This is significant, as currently there are less than 20 individuals in the Americas that have been identified as haplotype C4c, most of which have been obtained from modern samples. Here we analyze our data along with existing data and geographic distributions of C4c individuals within North and South America to better understand early migration patterns.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage