POLYMORPHIC ALU INSERTIONS AND THE ASIAN ORIGIN OF NATIVE-AMERICAN POPULATIONS

A rapid PCR-based assay was used to study the distribution of 5 polymo rphic Alu insertions in 895 unrelated individuals from 30 populations, 24 from North, Central, and South America, Although a significant lev el of interpopulation variability was detected, the variability was le ss than that observed in a worldwide population survey, This is consis tent with the bottleneck effect and genetic drift forces that may have acted on the migrating founder groups, The results corroborate the As ian origin of native American populations but do not support the multi ple-wave migration hypothesis supposedly responsible for the tripartit e Eskaleut, Nadene, and Amerind linguistic groups, Instead, these popu lations exhibit three major identifiable clusters reflecting geographi c distribution, Close similarity between the Chinese and native Americ ans suggests recent gene flow from Asia.