The phylogeography of African Brazilians.
OBJECTIVE
Approximately four million Africans were taken as slaves to Brazil, where they interbred extensively with Amerindians and Europeans. We have previously shown that while most White Brazilians carry Y chromosomes of European origin, they display high proportions of African and Amerindian mtDNA lineages, because of sex-biased genetic admixture.


METHODS
We studied the Y chromosome and mtDNA haplogroup structure of 120 Black males from Sao Paulo, Brazil.


RESULTS
Only 48% of the Y chromosomes, but 85% of the mtDNA haplogroups were characteristic of sub-Saharan Africa, confirming our previous observation of sexually biased mating. We mined literature data for mtDNA and Y chromosome haplogroup frequencies for African native populations from regions involved in Atlantic Slave Trade. Principal Components Analysis and Bayesian analysis of population structure revealed no genetic differentiation of Y chromosome marker frequencies between the African regions. However, mtDNA examination unraveled considerable genetic structure, with three clusters at Central-West Africa, West Africa and Southeast Africa. A hypothesis is proposed to explain this structure.


CONCLUSIONS
Using these mtDNA data we could obtain for the first time an estimate of the relative ancestral contribution of Central-West (0.445), West (0.431) and Southeast Africa (0.123) to African Brazilians from Sao Paulo. These estimates are consistent with historical information.
Gonçalves
Vanessa F
VF
Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Carvalho
Cláudia M B
CM
Bortolini
Maria Cátira
MC
Bydlowski
Sérgio P
SP
Pena
Sérgio D J
SD
D000349:Africa / Q000208:ethnology; D001938:Brazil; D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American; D008297:Male; D010802:Phylogeny
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial