RT Journal Article
T1 Genetic origin, admixture, and asymmetry in maternal and paternal human lineages in Cuba
A1 Mendizábal, Isabel
A1 Sandoval, Karla
A1 Berniell Lee, Gemma
A1 Calafell, Francesc
A1 Salas Ellacuriaga, Antonio
A1 Martínez Fuentes, Antonio
A1 Comas, David
AB Background: Before the arrival of Europeans to Cuba, the island was inhabited by two NativeAmerican groups, the Tainos and the Ciboneys. Most of the present archaeological, linguistic andancient DNA evidence indicates a South American origin for these populations. In colonial times,Cuban Native American people were replaced by European settlers and slaves from Africa. It is stillunknown however, to what extent their genetic pool intermingled with and was 'diluted' by thearrival of newcomers. In order to investigate the demographic processes that gave rise to thecurrent Cuban population, we analyzed the hypervariable region I (HVS-I) and five single nucleotidepolymorphisms (SNPs) in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) coding region in 245 individuals, and40 Y-chromosome SNPs in 132 male individuals.Results: The Native American contribution to present-day Cubans accounted for 33% of thematernal lineages, whereas Africa and Eurasia contributed 45% and 22% of the lineages,respectively. This Native American substrate in Cuba cannot be traced back to a single origin withinthe American continent, as previously suggested by ancient DNA analyses. Strikingly, no NativeAmerican lineages were found for the Y-chromosome, for which the Eurasian and Africancontributions were around 80% and 20%, respectively.Conclusion: While the ancestral Native American substrate is still appreciable in the maternallineages, the extensive process of population admixture in Cuba has left no trace of the paternalNative American lineages, mirroring the strong sexual bias in the admixture processes taking placeduring colonial times.
PB BMC
SN 1471-2148
YR 2008
FD 2008
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/22765
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/22765
LA eng
NO Mendizabal, I., Sandoval, K., Berniell-Lee, G. et al. Genetic origin, admixture, and asymmetry in maternal and paternal human lineages in Cuba. BMC Evol Biol 8, 213 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-8-213
NO The present study was supported by the Dirección General de Investigación, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain (CGL2007-61016/BOS), Direcció General de Recerca, Generalitat de Catalunya (2005SGR/00608). IM is a PhD student granted by the Basque Government (Hezkuntza, Unibertsitate eta Ikerketa Saila, Eusko Jaurlaritza)
DS Minerva
RD 22 abr 2026