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. 2009 Aug 3:9:181.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-9-181.

Demographic history of Canary Islands male gene-pool: replacement of native lineages by European

Rosa Fregel  1 , Verónica Gomes, Leonor Gusmão, Ana M González, Vicente M Cabrera, António Amorim, Jose M Larruga
Affiliations

Demographic history of Canary Islands male gene-pool: replacement of native lineages by European

Rosa Fregel et al. BMC Evol Biol. .

Abstract

Background: The origin and prevalence of the prehispanic settlers of the Canary Islands has attracted great multidisciplinary interest. However, direct ancient DNA genetic studies on indigenous and historical 17th-18th century remains, using mitochondrial DNA as a female marker, have only recently been possible. In the present work, the analysis of Y-chromosome polymorphisms in the same samples, has shed light on the way the European colonization affected male and female Canary Island indigenous genetic pools, from the conquest to present-day times.

Results: Autochthonous (E-M81) and prominent (E-M78 and J-M267) Berber Y-chromosome lineages were detected in the indigenous remains, confirming a North West African origin for their ancestors which confirms previous mitochondrial DNA results. However, in contrast with their female lineages, which have survived in the present-day population since the conquest with only a moderate decline, the male indigenous lineages have dropped constantly being substituted by European lineages. Male and female sub-Saharan African genetic inputs were also detected in the Canary population, but their frequencies were higher during the 17th-18th centuries than today.

Conclusion: The European colonization of the Canary Islands introduced a strong sex-biased change in the indigenous population in such a way that indigenous female lineages survived in the extant population in a significantly higher proportion than their male counterparts.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
MDS and PCA graphical representations. A) MDS plot based on pairwise Fst genetic distances. B) PCA results based on haplogroup frequencies. Population codes are as in Table 1.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Y-chromosome tree of haplogroups and absolute frequencies for each population. Y-chromosome tree, taken from Karafet et al. (2008), representing the genealogical relationships of the haplogroups characterized in this study, using diagnostic SNPs and their absolute frequencies in the indigenous (ABO) and historical (CON) samples from the Canaries.
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