title: Mitochondrial sequence variation in the Guahibo Amerindian population from Venezuela.
abstract: New data were obtained on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from Guahibo from Venezuela, a group so far not studied using molecular data. A population sample (n = 59) was analyzed for mtDNA variation in two control-region hypervariable segments (HV1 and HV2) by sequencing. The presence or absence of a 9-bp polymorphism in the COII/tRNA(Lys) region was studied by direct amplification and electrophoretic identification. Thirty-eight variable sites were detected in regions HV1 and HV2, defining 26 mtDNA lineages; 23.7% of these were present in a single individual. The 9-bp deletion was found in 3.39% of individuals. Nucleotide and haplotype diversities were relatively high compared with other New World populations. The identified sequence haplotypes were classified into four major haplogroups (A-D) according to previous studies, with high frequencies for A (47.46%) and C (49.15%), low frequency for B (3.39%), and an absence of D.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Biology, Section of Anthropological Sciences, University of Cagliari, 09042 Cagliari, Italy. vona@unica.it
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vona
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Falchi
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Moral
authors.forename: Carla M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Calò
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Varesi
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014687:Venezuela
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial