Indentured migration and differential gender gene flow: The origin and evolution of the East‐Indian community of Limón, Costa Rica

Abstract

After the emancipation of African slaves in the Caribbean, the labor void left by out-migrating former slaves was filled by in-migrating indentured servants from prepartition India and China. In some areas of the Caribbean such as Trinidad, Suriname, and Guyana, the East-Indian migrants formed large communities. In this article, we report a study based on mtDNA and Y-chromosomal markers of a small East-Indian community from Limón, Costa Rica. The purpose of the project is to determine the place of origin in the Indian subcontinent of the ancestors of our group and the contributions to its gene pool through gene flow by members of other ethnic groups. Both Y-chromosome and mtDNA suggest that the Indo-Costa Ricans descend from migrants primarily from Central India. While both paternal and maternal markers indicate that this group is overwhelmingly of Indian origin, they also indicate that males and females of African, European, and Amerindian origin contributed to it differently. We discuss our results in the historical context of the virtual extinction of Amerindian Caribbean groups, the forced migration of African slaves to the Caribbean, and the gene flow between Amerindians, Europeans, East-Indians, and Africans that eventually produced the Caribbean's currently diverse gene pool.

Breast cancer survival in women of African descent living in the US and in the Caribbean: effect of place of birth

“…Another information derived from this analysis is that populations of East Indian descent, which constitute a large fraction of the Caribbean population for historical reasons [15], have poorer outcome after breast cancer diagnosis than the other Caribbean residents. A recent study analyzed breast cancer survival in Caribbean and East Indian immigrants to Southern England, and confirmed the increased mortality in the Caribbean population, but not in the East Indians [16].…”

Interethnic admixture and the evolution of Latin American populations

“…1As indicated, articles reporting protein markers (for instance, Arias et al , 2002; Morera et al , 2003) or uniparental markers only (Martínez-Cruzado et al , 2001; McLean Jr et al , 2005; Castri et al , 2007; Benn Torres et al , 2007; Gaieski et al , 2011) were not included. No specific prevalences were given by Bryc et al (2010) or Moreno-Estrada et al (2013).…”

Anthropological genetic insights on Caribbean population history

“…79,100,115 Extensive anthropological research has been conducted among self-identified Culí communities of East Indian descent living in the coastal region of Puerto Lim on in Costa Rica. 115,116 Combining longterm ethnographic research, including the collection of detailed pedigrees, with the use of uniparental markers, Castrì and coauthors 116 found this community descends from a small number of indentured migrants transported from Central India. Interestingly, differences in the sub-continental ancestries of mtDNA and Y-chromosome loci suggest that the male and female ancestors of the Culí came from different parts of Central India and migrated to the Americas at different times.…”

“…Extensive anthropological research has been conducted among self‐identified Culí communities of East Indian descent living in the coastal region of Puerto Limón in Costa Rica 115,116 . Combining long‐term ethnographic research, including the collection of detailed pedigrees, with the use of uniparental markers, Castrì and coauthors 116 found this community descends from a small number of indentured migrants transported from Central India.…”