If you don't remember your password, you can reset it by entering your email address and clicking the Reset Password button. You will then receive an email that contains a secure link for resetting your password
If the address matches a valid account an email will be sent to __email__ with instructions for resetting your password
Corresponding author at: BIOMICs Research Group, Lascaray Research Center, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Avda. Miguel de Unamuno, 3, 01006, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.
The study of Y-chromosome SNPs allows to link haplogroups to paternal biogeographical ancestry. The analysis of haplogroup R1b-M269 and its subhaplogroups in Latin American populations can help to assess the European paternal contribution. The objective of this work was to study the presence of R1b-DF27 in Latin American Mestizo populations. The obtained results reveal an average frequency of 29–35% with a north-south increasing pattern, seeming to agree with the influence of the Spanish commerce routes with America in the colonial era. Thus, the finding of DF27 in a forensic context could be due to individuals of both European and Latin American ancestry. In summary, the present work highlights the interest to further analyze R1b- DF27 in Latin America.
The populations of Latin America have been influenced historically by male-mediated migrations during the colonial period stemming mainly from the European countries of Spain and Portugal, and Africa [
]. The admixture of the local populations of Amerindians and Europeans gave rise to admixed populations known as Mestizos, characterized by a European-Native American mixed ancestry where the paternal lineage is usually of European origin [
The analysis of Y-chromosome SNPs (Y-SNPs) allows to stablish haplogroups and paternal biogeographical ancestry. R1b-M269, and its subhaploproup R1b-S116, are among the most common West European paternal lineages [
] and its analysis could contribute to deepen the paternal the European/Iberian introgression in Latin America.
The objective of the present work is to study the presence of R1b-DF27 in Latin American Mestizo populations from five countries, Panamá, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Colombia.
2. Material and methods
2.1 Population sample
Blood or saliva samples were collected after informed consent from 230 unrelated healthy Mestizo males from Panamá (N = 53), Nicaragua (N = 72), El Salvador (N = 29), Guatemala (N = 44) and Colombia (N = 32) (Fig. 1A). The Nicaragua and Colombia Mestizo samples come from two bigger collections that had been previously genotyped for R1b-M269 [
]. The study was approved with favorable ethical reports from the University of the Basque Country (26th September 2008) and the independent Ethics Committee Zugueme No PROZU315-12 (2012).
Fig. 1A) Geographic location of the studied populations. In black population analyzed in the present stud. Mexico, Puerto Rico and Antioquia (Colombia) data were obtained from 1000 Genomes Project [
]. B) Contour map of the derived allele frequencies of R1b-DF27 (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article).
The European haplogroup R1b-DF27 displays an average frequency of 28–35%, being the highest in Colombia and the lowest in El Salvador (Table 1, Fig. 1B).
The observed frequencies are in concordance with the few data of R1b-DF27 in Latin American populations collected in the 1000 Genomes Project [
], displaying an increasing gradient of frequencies from Mexico to Colombia (Fig. 1B).
The distribution of R1b-DF27 frequencies in the five population samples seems to agree with the influence of the main commerce routes between Spain and America during the colonial era, which allows to explain the possible reason behind the higher frequencies found in Colombia, where the main port linked to Spanish trade was located [
Our results show that R1b-DF27 is present in Latin America in frequencies between 9–37%, displaying a south-north decreasing gradient. Moreover, the distribution pattern seems to agree with the Spanish trade routes with America in the colonial period, observing maximum frequencies where the trade relation with Spain was more intense. It would be of high interest to further analyze the presence of R1b-DF27 in Latin America in order to get a more detailed picture of its distribution.
In summary, our results indicate that finding R1b-DF27 in forensic casework in European countries, as Spain, with a high rate of emigrants from Latin America, could be due to individuals of both European and Latin American origin.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors have declared no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
Funds were provided by the Basque Government (Grupo Consolidado IT-998-16 and IT-1271-19). The authors are grateful to PhD Maite Álvarez for her human and technical assistance provided on the DNA Bank Service (SGIker) of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (European funding: ERDF and ESF), as well to all the people who voluntarily participated in this study.
30237-9&id=gr1.jpg){kind=link}