Y-chromosome lineages in São Tomé e Príncipe and Cabo Verde islands: different input of european influence

• Autor(a) principal: Gonçalves, Rita
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Spínola, Hélder, Brehm, António
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/4478
• topic: São Tomé e Príncipe; Cabo Verde; Y-Chromosome; SNP; .; Faculdade de Ciências da Vida

The Y-chromosome haplogroup composition of the population of Sa˜o Tome´ e Prı´ncipe and Cabo Verde Archipelagos was profiled by using 24 biallelic markers, and compared with populations from Europe, Africa and the Middle East. According to the traditional view, these archipelagos colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th century were settled mainly by West African slaves, with the addition of a minor fraction of male colonizers from Europe. Although the major proportion of the founding population of Sa˜o Tome´ e Prı´ncipe cluster in haplogroup E3a (84.2%), very common among sub-Saharans, this lineage was observed at a frequency of only 15.9% in Cabo Verde. Haplogroups I, J and R1, characterized of populations of Europe and the Middle East account for more than half of the paternal lineages of Cabo Verdeans (53.5%). These West Eurasian haplogroups are found at a frequency of only 12.5% in the population of Sa˜o Tome´ e Prı´ncipe. Our findings suggest that despite the sub-Saharan genetic background of these archipelagos, a relevant contribution of European paternal lineages is present in nowadays populations indicating that gene flow from multiple sources have been important in the formation of the diversity of the islanders, nevertheless with a different degree of admixture.