Reconstructing the Population History of Nicaragua by Means of Mtdna, Y-Chromosome Strs, and Autosomal STR Markers
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 143:591–600 (2010) Reconstructing the Population History of Nicaragua by Means of mtDNA, Y-Chromosome STRs, and Autosomal STR Markers Carolina Nun˜ ez,1* Miriam Baeta,1 Cecilia Sosa,1 Yolanda Casalod,1 Jianye Ge,2,3 Bruce Budowle,2,3 and Begon˜ a Martı´nez-Jarreta1 1Laboratory of Forensic Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain 2Institute of Investigative Genetics, Health Science Center, University of North Texas, Ft Worth, TX 76107 3Department of Forensic and Investigative Genetics, Health Science Center, University of North Texas, Ft Worth, TX 76107 KEY WORDS Central America; genetic admixture; Mestizos; Native Americans ABSTRACT Before the arrival of the Spaniards in the maternal lineages, whereas the majority of Nicara- Nicaragua, diverse Native American groups inhabited guan Y chromosome haplogroups can be traced back to a the territory. In colonial times, Native Nicaraguan popu- West Eurasian origin. Pairwise Fst distances based on Y- lations interacted with Europeans and slaves from STRs between Nicaragua and European, African and Africa. To ascertain the extent of this genetic admixture Native American populations show that Nicaragua is and provide genetic evidence about the origin of the Nic- much closer to Europeans than the other populations. araguan ancestors, we analyzed the mitochondrial con- Additionally, admixture proportions based on autosomal trol region (HVSI and HVSII), 17 Y chromosome STRs, STRs indicate a predominantly Spanish contribution. and 15 autosomal STRs in 165 Mestizo individuals from Our study reveals that the Nicaraguan Mestizo popula- Nicaragua. To carry out interpopulation comparisons, tion harbors a high proportion of European male and HVSI sequences from 29 American populations were Native American female substrate.
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