Javier Blanco Portillo

All Publications

• Paths and timings of the peopling of Polynesia inferred from genomic networks. Nature Ioannidis, A. G., Blanco-Portillo, J., Sandoval, K., Hagelberg, E., Barberena-Jonas, C., Hill, A. V., Rodriguez-Rodriguez, J. E., Fox, K., Robson, K., Haoa-Cardinali, S., Quinto-Cortes, C. D., Miquel-Poblete, J. F., Auckland, K., Parks, T., Sofro, A. S., Avila-Arcos, M. C., Sockell, A., Homburger, J. R., Eng, C., Huntsman, S., Burchard, E. G., Gignoux, C. R., Verdugo, R. A., Moraga, M., Bustamante, C. D., Mentzer, A. J., Moreno-Estrada, A. 2021; 597 (7877): 522-526

  Abstract

  Polynesia was settled in a series of extraordinary voyages across an ocean spanning one third of the Earth1, but the sequences of islands settled remain unknown and their timings disputed. Currently, several centuries separate the dates suggested by different archaeological surveys2-4. Here, using genome-wide data frommerely 430 modern individuals from 21 key Pacific island populations and novel ancestry-specific computational analyses, we unravel the detailed genetic history of this vast, dispersed island network. Our reconstruction of the branching Polynesian migration sequence reveals a serial founder expansion, characterized by directional loss of variants, that originated in Samoa and spread first through the Cook Islands (Rarotonga), then to the Society (Totaiete ma) Islands (11th century), the western Austral (Tuha'a Pae) Islands and Tuamotu Archipelago (12th century), and finally to the widely separated, but genetically connected, megalithic statue-building cultures of the Marquesas (Te Henua 'Enana) Islands in the north, Raivavae in the south, and Easter Island (Rapa Nui), the easternmost of the Polynesian islands, settled in approximately AD 1200 via Mangareva.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41586-021-03902-8

  View details for PubMedID 34552258

• Native American gene flow into Polynesia predating Easter Island settlement. Nature Ioannidis, A. G., Blanco-Portillo, J., Sandoval, K., Hagelberg, E., Miquel-Poblete, J. F., Moreno-Mayar, J. V., Rodriguez-Rodriguez, J. E., Quinto-Cortes, C. D., Auckland, K., Parks, T., Robson, K., Hill, A. V., Avila-Arcos, M. C., Sockell, A., Homburger, J. R., Wojcik, G. L., Barnes, K. C., Herrera, L., Berrios, S., Acuna, M., Llop, E., Eng, C., Huntsman, S., Burchard, E. G., Gignoux, C. R., Cifuentes, L., Verdugo, R. A., Moraga, M., Mentzer, A. J., Bustamante, C. D., Moreno-Estrada, A. 2020

  Abstract

  The possibility of voyaging contact between prehistoric Polynesian and Native Americanpopulations has long intrigued researchers. Proponents have pointed to the existence of New World crops, such as the sweet potato and bottle gourd, in the Polynesian archaeological record, but nowhere else outside the pre-Columbian Americas1-6, while critics have argued that these botanical dispersals need not have been human mediated7. The Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl controversially suggested that prehistoric South Americanpopulations had an important role in the settlement of east Polynesia and particularly of Easter Island (Rapa Nui)2. Several limited molecular genetic studies have reached opposing conclusions, and the possibility continues to be as hotly contested today as it was when first suggested8-12. Here we analyse genome-wide variation in individuals from islands across Polynesia for signs of Native American admixture, analysing 807 individuals from 17 island populations and 15 Pacific coast Native American groups. We find conclusive evidence for prehistoric contact of Polynesianindividuals with Native Americanindividuals (around AD 1200) contemporaneouswith the settlement of remote Oceania13-15. Our analyses suggest strongly that a single contact event occurred in eastern Polynesia, before the settlement of Rapa Nui, between Polynesianindividuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41586-020-2487-2

  View details for PubMedID 32641827