Genetic Affiliation of Pre-Hispanic and Contemporary Mayas Through Maternal Linage.

Maya civilization developed in Mesoamerica and encompassed the Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, part of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas, and the western parts of Honduras and El Salvador. This civilization persisted approximately 3,000 years and was one of the most advanced of its time, possessing the only known full writing system at the time, as well as art, sophisticated architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. This civilization reached the apex of its power and influence during the Preclassic period, from 2000 BCE to 250 CE.

Paternal Genetic Structure in Contemporary Mennonite Communities from the American Midwest.

Over the last 35 years, researchers from the Laboratory of Biological Anthropology at the University of Kansas have been working with Mennonite communities to better understand evolutionary patterns of fission-fusion in relationship to their genetic history and population structure. In this study, short tandem repeat (STR) markers from the nonrecombining region of the Y chromosome (NRY) provided increased resolution of the molecular population structure for these groups. NRY is known to be informative for determining paternal genetic ancestral patterns in recently derived human populations.

DNA fingerprinting in anthropological genetics: past, present, future.

In 1985, Sir Alec Jeffreys developed the variable-number tandem repeat method used to identify individuals and giving researchers the first DNA fingerprints. These initial methods were used in anthropological genetics, a field that uses a comparative approach to answer questions about human history, including the discernment of the origin of Native American populations and the discrimination of clan affiliation from individuals in Siberia. The technological and methodological advances since this time have led to the use of many more markers, including restriction fragment length polymorphisms, Y chromosomal and autosomal short tandem repeats, single nucleotide polymorphisms, and direct sequencing not only to identify individuals, but to examine frequencies and distributions of markers (or "prints") of entire populations.