Admixture estimates based on ABO, Rh and nine STRs in two Venezuelan regions.
BACKGROUND
The Venezuelan population is the product of Native American, African and European admixture. Few admixture studies have been made in Venezuela using short tandem repeats (STRs).


OBJECTIVE
The study estimated the contribution of each parental group in two Venezuelan regions: the Northern-Central and the Central-Western Regions.


METHODS
Frequencies for ABO and Rh were estimated by maximum likelihood, and by direct count for nine STRs, for 211 individuals. Admixture was estimated using Chakraborty's gene identity method. Neighbour-joining dendrograms were obtained with Nei's DS distance calculated between the two regions, the parental populations and other Venezuelan and Latin American populations. A principal component analysis (PCA) was also performed.


RESULTS
For the Northern-Central Region, the estimate of admixture was 37.7% for the European component, 37.7% for the African and 24.6% for the Native American. For the Central-Western region, the estimate of admixture was 58.5% for the European, 16.5% for the African and 25.0% for the Native American component.


CONCLUSIONS
(i) All systems were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, except the Rh blood group of the Central-Western Region; (ii) the European contribution is high in both groups; (iii) in the dendrogram and PCA, the studied populations appear close to other admixed populations, and their relative position with regard to the three parental populations coincides with the admixture analysis.
Simmons
Alexandra D
AD
Laboratorio de Genética Humana, IVIC, Apartado 21827, Caracas 1020-A, Venezuela.
Rodriguez-Arroyo
Greta
G
Rodriguez-Larralde
Alvaro
A
D000017:ABO Blood-Group System / Q000235:genetics*; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005788:Gene Pool; D005828:Genetics, Population / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000235:genetics*; D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System / Q000235:genetics*; D014687:Venezuela
D000017:ABO Blood-Group System; D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System