Analysis of the genetic structure of Santa Cruz province and it comparison with the other southern Patagonian provinces of Argentina

CANO H; GINART SANTIAGO; CAPUTO M; CORACH D; SALA A

Kracovia

Congreso; 26th ISFG Congress International Society for Forensic Genetics; 2015

International Society for Forensic Genetics

 Santa Cruz is the southernmost continental Patagonian province (latitude ranging 46º00´ S - 52º23´ S and longitude 65º43´ W - 73º 35´ W). Itsdemographic history is complex and changing over time. The oldest settlers were the Aónikenk,arriving around 12000 years before present. The Mapuche penetration startedfrom western Andes during the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries. Europeans arrived during nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries. Since then, the region experienced aconstant demographic fluctuation due toArgentinean and international migrations.Aiming to investigate the overallgenetic features of forensic interest in the Province of Santa Cruza total number of 645 individuals were selected. The sample set included: Santa Cruz (N=145),Chubut (N=102), Río Negro (N=99), Buenos Aires (N=93)and potentially parental population samples from CEPH (N=206).Analysis included: 15 autosomal STRs, 23 Y-STRs and a set of 6 Y-SNPs. Geneticdistance was significant between Santa Cruz eitherto Chubut, Rio Negro or Buenos Airespopulations. Native American Y-specific haplogroup Q1a3a was present in around15% of the Santa Cruzmales and the haplogroup R1b was the most frequent European hg (45%). Structureanalysis demonstrated that Santa Cruzpopulation is composed by three ancestral contributors: European (50%), Native American (36%)and African (13%). Genetic characterization of this population allows increasinggenetic knowledge of the country, in which previous studies have identifiedregional differences associated with the complex demographic process that tookplace in South America.