title: The phylogeography of African Brazilians.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors.forename: Vanessa F
authors.initials: VF
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.forename: Cláudia M B
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.forename: Maria Cátira
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Bortolini
authors.forename: Sérgio P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Bydlowski
authors.forename: Sérgio D J
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Pena
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial