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. 2019 Jun 17;14(6):e0214830.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214830. eCollection 2019.

Genetic admixture patterns in Argentinian Patagonia

María Laura Parolin  1 , Ulises F Toscanini  2 , Irina F Velázquez  1 , Cintia Llull  2 , Gabriela L Berardi  2 , Alfredo Holley  1 , Camila Tamburrini  1 , Sergio Avena  3   4 , Francisco R Carnese  3 , José L Lanata  5 , Noela Sánchez Carnero  6 , Lucas F Arce  1 , Néstor G Basso  1 , Rui Pereira  7   8 , Leonor Gusmão  7   9
Affiliations

Genetic admixture patterns in Argentinian Patagonia

María Laura Parolin et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

As in other Latin American populations, Argentinians are the result of the admixture amongst different continental groups, mainly from America and Europe, and to a lesser extent from Sub-Saharan Africa. However, it is known that the admixture processes did not occur homogeneously throughout the country. Therefore, considering the importance for anthropological, medical and forensic researches, this study aimed to investigate the population genetic structure of the Argentinian Patagonia, through the analysis of 46 ancestry informative markers, in 433 individuals from five different localities. Overall, in the Patagonian sample, the average individual ancestry was estimated as 35.8% Native American (95% CI: 32.2-39.4%), 62.1% European (58.5-65.7%) and 2.1% African (1.7-2.4%). Comparing the five localities studied, statistically significant differences were observed for the Native American and European contributions, but not for the African ancestry. The admixture results combined with the genealogical information revealed intra-regional variations that are consistent with the different geographic origin of the participants and their ancestors. As expected, a high European ancestry was observed for donors with four grandparents born in Europe (96.8%) or in the Central region of Argentina (85%). In contrast, the Native American ancestry increased when the four grandparents were born in the North (71%) or in the South (61.9%) regions of the country, or even in Chile (60.5%). In summary, our results showed that differences on continental ancestry contribution have different origins in each region in Patagonia, and even in each locality, highlighting the importance of knowing the origin of the participants and their ancestors for the correct interpretation and contextualization of the genetic information.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Map of Argentina showing the three main regions of the country, and the five studied populations.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Ternary plot showing the continental ancestry distribution of the Patagonian samples.
SCB: San Carlos de Bariloche, ESQ: Esquel, PM: Puerto Madryn, TW: Trelew, CR: Comodoro Rivadavia.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Average individual ancestry and the associated 95% CI for the five studied population.
The blue line represents the Native American component (NAM), the green line the European component (EU), and the red line the African component (AF).
Fig 4
Fig 4. Proportion (%) of grandparents’ birthplace by locality.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Average individual ancestry and the associated 95% CI obtained in samples with four grandparents born in the same geographic region.
The blue line represents the Native American component (NAM), the green line the European component (EU) and the red line the African component (AF).
Fig 6
Fig 6
Maps of Argentina and Chile showing the distribution of Native American (A), European (B) and African (C) individual ancestry estimated in individuals who inhabit in Argentinian Patagonia, together with the distribution of the sampled individuals (D) by birthplace and density (red dots).
Fig 7
Fig 7. MDS plot of the FST pairwise genetic distances between eleven Argentine populations, other six South American populations and the three HGDP-CEPH parental populations.
Stress = 0.10644. Population references are in S5 Table.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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