Human Enzyme Polymorphism in the Canary Islands

SummaryWe genotyped 24 biallelic sites and 5 microsatellites from the non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome in 652 males from the Canary Islands. The results indicate that, contrary to mtDNA data, paternal lineages of the current population are overwhelmingly (>90%) of European origin, arguing for a highly asymmetric pattern of mating after European occupation. However, the presence of lineages of indisputable African assignation demonstrates that an aboriginal background still persists (<10%). On the basis of distribution and dating of some of these lineages we derived a genetic perspective of settlement processes of the archipelago in two stages, congruent with anthropological, archaeological and linguistic findings.

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Genetic relationship between the Canary Islanders and their African and Spanish ancestors inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences

Pinto

González

Hernández

et al. 1996

Annals of Human Genetics

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Nucleotide sequences of the hypervariable segment I of the control region of the mtDNA were determined in 101 individuals: 54 Canary Islanders, 18 North African Berbers, 18 Spanish mainlanders and 11 sub-Saharan Guineans. In spite of the fact that only members of the Fang tribe were analysed, nucleotide diversity in Guineans (theta x 100 = 2.33) is one of the highest found in African populations. Estimates of genetic contribution to the Canarians from their putative parental populations based on mtDNA (43.25 +/- 1.38% Berbers, 35.54 +/- 0.55% Spanish, 21.21 +/- 1.92% Guineans) showed an important North African substrate. These mtDNA results, when compared with data based on nuclear markers, point to a strong male female asymmetry, 75% of the Spanish nuclear contribution was due to males and practically all the Berber and Guinean was due to females. These results are in agreement with the way that the Canary Islands were conquered. Pairwise difference distributions in Guineans and Berbers are compatible with the model of populations in expansion. Departures from a Poisson distribution for the Canarians and Spanish can be explained by admixture and the way of sampling respectively.

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Human Enzyme Polymorphism in the Canary Islands

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

The peopling of the Canary Islands: a CD4/Alu microsatellite haplotype perspective

The peopling of the Canary Islands: a CD4/Alu microsatellite haplotype perspective

A Predominant European Ancestry of Paternal Lineages from Canary Islanders

Genetic relationship between the Canary Islanders and their African and Spanish ancestors inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences

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