What does our ancient DNA tell us about who we are and how we moved around the globe?

Genetic data is transforming how scientists understand human history, and Andrés Moreno-Estrada frames that shift through the genetics of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. Speaking at a CARTA symposium on ancient DNA, Moreno-Estrada, a medical doctor, says his interest in human origins is personal: he grew up in a family of anthropologists, and he was born in an Indigenous community in the Mixtec Highlands of Oaxaca.

He describes a broad origin story for the region: Indigenous peoples in the Americas derive from East Asians roughly 15,000 years ago. He also notes that present-day diversity in Latin America becomes especially complex over the past 500 years, as previously distinct genetic profiles mixed during an intercontinental exchange.

Moreno-Estrada highlights a well-known imbalance in genomics: most participants in genomic studies so far are of European descent, creating a disproportion between global populations and who is represented in genomic profiles. He explains that his team initiated the Mexican Biobank project to build a finer picture of genetic profiles in Mexico and to focus on lessons about population origins and structure.

He also turns to the “trans-Pacific” question. Moreno-Estrada cites research using DNA from human remains from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) that finds a signal of Indigenous mixture dating to before European contact, contributing to growing evidence for prehistoric contact between Indigenous Americans and Polynesians. But he stresses a key limit: genetic data cannot reveal the exact route or dynamics of that contact.

Watch Andrés Moreno-Estrada’s Population Genetics of Latin America and Oceania.