Genetic analysis of six communities of Mbyá-Guaraní inhabiting North Eastern Argentina by

ANDREA SALA; CARINA F. ARGÜELLES; MIGUEL E. MARINO; CECILIA BOBILLO; ALBERTO FENOCCHIO; DANIEL CORACH

HUMAN BIOLOGY

WAYNE STATE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: usa; Año: 2010 vol. 82 p. 433 - 456

0018-7143

Autosomal STRs, Y-chromosome markers, and mitochondrial DNAsequences were investigated in six Mbyá-Guaraní villages (Fortín M?Bororé,Yryapu, Tabay, Kaaguy Poty, Jejy, and Yaboti), all of them settled within theprovince of Misiones, northeastern Argentina. One hundred twenty-one unrelatedindividuals were analyzed. The study involved typing fifteen autosomalSTRs, nine Y-chromosome STRs, and four biallele loci in the nonrecombinantregion of the Y chromosome, sequencing the mtDNA of hypervariableregions I and II, and detecting the 9-bp ins/del in region V of mtDNA. Allautosomal STRs were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The four major nativeAmerican mtDNA haplogroups were represented in the sample. HaplogroupsA2 and D1 exhibited the highest frequencies (40.5% and 36.0%, respectively),and haplogroups B2 and C1 appeared to be less frequent (17.5% and6.0%, respectively). The native American haplogroup Q1a3a was observed ina relevant proportion (88.8%). In addition, a nine-STR Y- chromosome haplotype(DYS19*13, DYS389I*14, DYS389II*31, DYS390*24, DYS391*11,DYS392*14, DYS393*11, DYS385A*14, DYS385B*16) exhibited a frequencyof more than 36%. Our results indicate that the analyzed Argentinean Guaraníindividuals are genetically more closely related to Guaraní from Brazil[genetic distance (Δμ)2 = 0.48] than to other related tribes that are geographicallycloser. Statistical approaches based on autosomal data do not supportthe hypothesis of genetic drift previously proposed; however, this apparentdiscrepancy might be due to the lack of sensitivity of the autosomal markersused here.