Mexico is a rich source for anthropological and population genetic studies with high diversity in ethnic and linguistic groups. The country witnessed the rise and fall of major civilizations, including the Maya and Aztec, but resulting from European colonization, the population landscape has dramatically changed. Today, the majority of Mexicans do not identify themselves as Indigenous but as admixed, and appear to have very little in common with their pre-Columbian predecessors. However, when the maternally inherited mitochondrial (mt)DNA is investigated in the modern Mexican population, this is not the case. Control region sequences of 2021 samples deriving from all over the country revealed an overwhelming Indigenous American legacy, with almost 90% of mtDNAs belonging to the four major pan-American haplogroups A2, B2, C1, and D1. This finding supports a very low European contribution to the Mexican gene pool by female colonizers and confirms the effectiveness of employing uniparental markers as a tool to reconstruct a country’s history. In addition, the distinct frequency and dispersal patterns of Indigenous American and West Eurasian clades highlight the benefit such large and country-wide databases provide for studying the impact of colonialism from a female perspective and population stratification. The importance of geographical database subsets not only for forensic application is clearly demonstrated.

中文翻译：

---

现代墨西哥的线粒体DNA景观

墨西哥是人类学和人口遗传学研究的丰富来源，种族和语言群体具有高度多样性。该国见证了包括玛雅和阿兹特克在内的主要文明的兴衰，但由于欧洲的殖民化，人口格局发生了巨大变化。今天，大多数墨西哥人并不认为自己是土著，而是混血，而且似乎与他们的前哥伦布时代的前辈几乎没有共同之处。然而，当在现代墨西哥人群中研究母系遗传的线粒体 (mt) DNA 时，情况并非如此。来自全国各地的 2021 个样本的控制区域序列揭示了压倒性的美国土著遗产，几乎 90% 的 mtDNA 属于四大泛美单倍群 A2、B2、C1 和 D1。这一发现支持欧洲女性殖民者对墨西哥基因库的贡献非常低，并证实了使用单亲标记作为重建国家历史的工具的有效性。此外，美洲原住民和西欧亚分支的独特频率和分散模式突出了如此庞大的全国性数据库为从女性角度和人口分层研究殖民主义影响提供的好处。地理数据库子集不仅对取证应用的重要性得到了明确证明。美洲原住民和西欧亚分支的不同频率和分散模式突出了如此庞大的全国性数据库为从女性角度和人口分层研究殖民主义影响提供的好处。地理数据库子集不仅对取证应用的重要性得到了明确证明。美洲原住民和西欧亚分支的不同频率和分散模式突出了如此庞大的全国性数据库为从女性角度和人口分层研究殖民主义影响提供的好处。地理数据库子集不仅对取证应用的重要性得到了明确证明。