Analysis of paternal lineages in Brazilian and African populations

Abstract

The present-day Brazilian population is a consequence of the admixture of various peoples of very different origins, namely, Amerindians, Europeans and Africans. The proportion of each genetic contribution is known to be very heterogeneous throughout the country. The aim of the present study was to compare the male lineages present in two distinct Brazilian populations, as well as to evaluate the African contribution to their male genetic substrate. Thus, two Brazilian population samples from Manaus (State of Amazon) and Ribeirão Preto (State of São Paulo) and three African samples from Guinea Bissau, Angola and Mozambique were typed for a set of nine Y chromosome specific STRs. The data were compared with those from African, Amerindian and European populations. By using Y-STR haplotype information, low genetic distances were found between the Manaus and Ribeirão Preto populations, as well as between these and others from Iberia. Likewise, no significant distances were observed between any of the African samples from Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau. Highly significant Rst values were found between both Brazilian samples and all the African and Amerindian populations. The absence of a significant Sub-Saharan African male component resulting from the slave trade, and the low frequency in Amerindian ancestry Y-lineages in the Manaus and Ribeirão Preto population samples are in accordance with the accentuated gender asymmetry in admixture processes that has been systematically reported in colonial South American populations.

New insights on intercontinental origins of paternal lineages in Northeast Brazil

“…The homogenous distribution of European haplogroups in Northeastern Brazil showed by our results is expected in this region of the country due to historical reports and previous local data (7,9). A greater European component of paternal lineages is also the case for the other geopolitical regions of Brazil, which is a demonstration of the colonization patterns in this territory (7,10,11,14,(25)(26)(27). The investigation of subtypes of these deep-rooted haplogroups was important for elucidating the origin of foreign settlers that have historically contributed to the formation of the Brazilian gene pool, given that historical records describe intense migratory movements of diverse populations in this region since the colonial period (1).…”

“…Uniparental markers are useful for disentangling the complex processes that shaped the current population (6). Indeed, previous data from maternal and paternal lineages (using both slow and fast evolving markers) has shown a strong male biased colonization of the Brazilian territory, with the majority of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups being of Native American and African origin, while Y-chromosome lineages are overwhelmingly dominated by European haplogroups (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). We have demonstrated heterogenous frequencies of mitochondrial Amerindian and African lineages in the Brazilian Northeast, which brought a new perspective to the understanding of the maternal ancestral contributions to this region (13).…”

Interethnic admixture and the evolution of Latin American populations

“…1Additional information based on uniparental or X-linked markers can be found as follows: (a) mtDNA only: Carvalho et al (2008); (b) mtDNA plus Y-chromosome: RibeirodosSantos et al (2002), Marrero et al (2005, 2007), Hünemeier et al (2007), Guerreiro-Junior et al (2009); (c) Y-chromosome only: Carvalho-Silva et al (2001), Ferreira et al (2006), Silva et al (2006), Ribeiro et al (2009), Carvalho et al (2010), Palha et al (2011), Ribeiro et al (2011), Francez et al (2012); (d) X-linked only: Ribeiro-Rodrigues et al (2009), Resque et al (2010).2Key to sampling criteria: 1. Random; 2.…”

At the southeast fringe of the Bantu expansion: genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships to other sub-Saharan tribes

“…Y-STRs are particularly useful in the study of recent human evolution due to their hyper-variability, which enable high levels of phylogenetic resolution ( Rowold and Herrera, 2003 ). To date, to our knowledge, only a handful of Y-STR studies ( Alves et al, 2003 , Carvalho et al, 2010 , Gusmão et al, 2003 , Pereira et al, 2002 , Sanchez-Diz et al, 2003 ) have examined the genetic diversity of Bantu populations from the Maputo Province in Southeast Africa. Although these articles provide valuable genetic data, the investigations are limited in scope, uniformity of specific markers across the studies and, for the most part, by the low number of Y-STR loci examined, the lack of both Y-SNP and Y-STR data as part of individual studies as well as phylogenetic comparisons to other continental African groups, Bantu and non-Bantus.…”