Y chromosomes of Huichol tribe of Mexico

Leg Med (Tokyo). 2006 Jul;8(4):220-5. Epub 2006 Jun 21.

Y-linked haplotypes in Amerindian chromosomes from Mexican populations: genetic evidence to the dual origin of the Huichol tribe.

Paez-Riberos LA, Munoz-Valle JF, Figuera LE, Nuno-Arana I, Sandoval-Ramirez L, Gonzalez-Martin A, Ibarra B, Rangel-Villalobos H.

We studied six Y-linked short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) to describe the internal diversity of the Amerindian haplogroup Q-M3 in 129 males from eight Mexican populations. The low gene diversity in the Huichol tribe demonstrated the effects of genetic drift, attributable to geographic isolation and founder effect. The presence of two principal paternal lineages supported the historical and anthropometric records, which indicate that Huichols were formed by the fusion of two ancestral Mexican tribes. Moreover, genetic distances and close relationships of haplotypes between Huichols and Tarahumaras were in agreement with their linguistic affiliation. The high genetic diversity of the Purepechas and wide distribution of haplotypes along the constructed network-joining tree suggest that the present genetic composition was influenced by Purepecha dominance in western Mesoamerica. The Y-haplotypes shared between populations suggest that, among the Amerindian tribes studied herein, the paternal genetic pool of Nahuas could have contributed more importantly to the European-admixed population, the Mexican-Mestizos.

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