Revisiting the genetic ancestry of Brazilians using autosomal AIM-Indels

PLoS One. 2013 Sep 20;8(9):e75145. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0075145. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

There are many different studies that contribute to the global picture of the ethnic heterogeneity in Brazilian populations. These studies use different types of genetic markers and are focused on the comparison of populations at different levels. In some of them, each geographical region is treated as a single homogeneous population, whereas other studies create different subdivisions: political (e.g., pooling populations by State), demographic (e.g., urban and rural), or ethnic (e.g., culture, self-declaration, or skin colour). In this study, we performed an enhanced reassessment of the genetic ancestry of ~ 1,300 Brazilians characterised for 46 autosomal Ancestry Informative Markers (AIMs). In addition, 798 individuals from twelve Brazilian populations representing the five geographical macro-regions of Brazil were newly genotyped, including a Native American community and a rural Amazonian community. Following an increasing North to South gradient, European ancestry was the most prevalent in all urban populations (with values up to 74%). The populations in the North consisted of a significant proportion of Native American ancestry that was about two times higher than the African contribution. Conversely, in the Northeast, Center-West and Southeast, African ancestry was the second most prevalent. At an intrapopulation level, all urban populations were highly admixed, and most of the variation in ancestry proportions was observed between individuals within each population rather than among population. Nevertheless, individuals with a high proportion of Native American ancestry are only found in the samples from Terena and Santa Isabel. Our results allowed us to further refine the genetic landscape of Brazilians while establishing the basis for the effective application of an autosomal AIM panel in forensic casework and clinical association studies within the highly admixed Brazilian populations.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

  • Brazil
  • Ethnicity / genetics*
  • Gene Frequency
  • Genetic Markers*
  • Genetic Variation / genetics*
  • Genetics, Population*
  • Genotype
  • Humans
  • Racial Groups / genetics*

Substances

  • Genetic Markers

Grants and funding

Financial support was granted by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) and DNA Program – State University and Justice Court of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ/TJRJ/MPRJ), Brazil. IPATIMUP is an Associate Laboratory of the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education and is partially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). RP is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from FCT (SFRH/BPD/81986/2011). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.