Colombia's racial crucible: Y chromosome evidence from six admixed communities in the Department of Bolivar.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the African, European and Native-American paternal contributions in genetic samples from the Department of Bolivar (Colombia) with the aims of establishing (1) possible population substructures, and (2) the proportion of biological African heritage in admixed populations of European, Amerindian, and African descent.


METHODS
Y-SNPs were typed in samples from six communities, including Palenque (renowned for its African linguistic and cultural heritage).


RESULTS
Findings reveal a high diversity of Y-haplogroups. With the exception of Palenque, the sum of European male lineages uniformly exceeded 57%. In Palenque, African lineages accounted for 57.7% of its chromosomes, with European male lineages constituting a mere 38.5%. In Pinillos, a significant proportion (23.8%) of the chromosomes belongs to the Native American haplogroup Q1a3a*-M3. Genetic differentiation analyses reveal significant divergences in most pairwise comparisons among the Bolivar municipalities, and the same holds between Bolivar and other South American populations.


CONCLUSIONS
Heterogeneous patterns of admixture reveal a genetic substructure within the Department of Bolivar. On the paternal side, five out of the six communities studied exhibit a predominantly European gene pool. The exception is Palenque, where European input (38%) is more significant than we had expected.
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Instituto de Genética Humana, Facultad de Medicina , Bogotá , Colombia .
María Claudia
MC
Noguera
Armin
A
Schwegler
Verónica
V
Gomes
Ignacio
I
Briceño
Luis
L
Alvarez
Daniel
D
Uricoechea
António
A
Amorim
Escilda
E
Benavides
Carlos
C
Silvera
Marlon
M
Charris
Jaime E
JE
Bernal
Leonor
L
Gusmão
D044383:Black People / Q000235:genetics; D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y / Q000235:genetics*; D003105:Colombia; D005788:Gene Pool; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics
African ancestry; Colombia; Y-SNP haplogroups; male lineages; palenque; population genetics