TY - JOUR T1 - Demographic history and genetic structure in pre-Hispanic Central Mexico JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2022.06.19.496730 SP - 2022.06.19.496730 AU - Viridiana Villa-Islas AU - Alan Izarraras-Gomez AU - Maximilian Larena AU - Elizabeth Mejía Perez Campos AU - Marcela Sandoval-Velasco AU - Juan Esteban Rodríguez-Rodríguez AU - Miriam Bravo-Lopez AU - Barbara Moguel AU - Rosa Fregel AU - Jazeps Medina Tretmanis AU - David Alberto Velázquez-Ramírez AU - Alberto Herrera-Muñóz AU - Karla Sandoval AU - Maria A. Nieves-Colón AU - Gabriela Zepeda AU - Fernando A Villanea AU - Eugenia Fernández Villanueva Medina AU - Ramiro Aguayo-Haro AU - Cristina Valdiosera AU - Alexander Ioannidis AU - Andrés Moreno-Estrada AU - Flora Jay AU - Emilia Huerta-Sanchez AU - Federico Sánchez-Quinto AU - María C. Ávila-Arcos Y1 - 2022/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/06/20/2022.06.19.496730.abstract N2 - Aridoamerica and Mesoamerica are two distinct cultural areas that hosted numerous pre-Hispanic civilizations between 2,500 BCE and 1,521 CE. The division between these regions shifted southward due to severe droughts ca. 1,100 years ago, allegedly driving demographic changes and population replacement in some sites in central Mexico. Here, we present shotgun genome-wide data from 12 individuals and 26 mitochondrial genomes from eight pre-Hispanic archaeological sites across Mexico, including two at the shifting border of Aridoamerica and Mesoamerica. We find population continuity spanning the climate change episode and a broad preservation of the genetic structure across present-day Mexico for the last 2,300 years. Lastly, we identify a contribution to pre-Hispanic populations of northern and central Mexico from an ancient unsampled ‘ghost’ population.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -