Genetic relationship between the Canary Islanders and their African and Spanish ancestors inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences

Abstract

Nucleotide sequences of the hypervariable segment I of the control region of the mtDNA were determined in 101 individuals: 54 Canary Islanders, 18 North African Berbers, 18 Spanish mainlanders and 11 sub-Saharan Guineans. In spite of the fact that only members of the Fang tribe were analysed, nucleotide diversity in Guineans (theta x 100 = 2.33) is one of the highest found in African populations. Estimates of genetic contribution to the Canarians from their putative parental populations based on mtDNA (43.25 +/- 1.38% Berbers, 35.54 +/- 0.55% Spanish, 21.21 +/- 1.92% Guineans) showed an important North African substrate. These mtDNA results, when compared with data based on nuclear markers, point to a strong male female asymmetry, 75% of the Spanish nuclear contribution was due to males and practically all the Berber and Guinean was due to females. These results are in agreement with the way that the Canary Islands were conquered. Pairwise difference distributions in Guineans and Berbers are compatible with the model of populations in expansion. Departures from a Poisson distribution for the Canarians and Spanish can be explained by admixture and the way of sampling respectively.