title: Characterisation of genetic structure of the Mayan population in Guatemala by autosomal STR analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Currently, the Guatemalan population comprises genetically isolated groups due to geographic, linguistic and cultural factors. For example, Mayan groups within the Guatemala population have preserved their own language, culture and religion. These practices have limited genetic admixture and have maintained the genetic identity of Mayan populations.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study is designed to define the genetic structure of the Mayan-Guatemalan groups Kaqchiquel, K'iche', Mam and Q'eqchi' through autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) polymorphisms and to analyse the genetic relationships between them and with other Mayan groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifteen STR polymorphisms were analysed in 200 unrelated donors belonging to the Kaqchiquel (n = 50), K'iche' (n = 50), Mam (n = 50) and Q'eqchi' (n = 50) groups living in Guatemala. Genetic distance, non-metric MDS and AMOVA were used to analyse the genetic relationships between population groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Within the Mayan population, the STRs D18S51 and FGA were the most informative markers and TH01 was the least informative. AMOVA and genetic distance analyses showed that the Guatemalan-Native American populations are highly similar to Mayan populations living in Mexico.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Mayan populations from Guatemala and other Native American groups display high genetic homogeneity. Genetic relationships between these groups are more affected by cultural and linguistic factors than geographical and local flow. This study represents one of the first steps in understanding Mayan-Guatemalan populations, the associations between their sub-populations and differences in gene diversity with other populations. This article also demonstrates that the Mestizo population shares most of its ancestral genetic components with the Guatemala Mayan populations.
authors.affiliation: a GENYO (Pfizer-University of Granada-Andalusian Government Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research) , Granada , Spain .
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Martinez-Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: b Laboratorio de Identificación Genética, Departamento de Medicina Legal y Toxicología, Facultad de Medicina , Universidad de Granada , Granada , Spain , and.|c Centre of Molecular Anthropology for Ancient DNA Studies, Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Alvarez-Cubero
authors.affiliation: b Laboratorio de Identificación Genética, Departamento de Medicina Legal y Toxicología, Facultad de Medicina , Universidad de Granada , Granada , Spain , and.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saiz
authors.affiliation: b Laboratorio de Identificación Genética, Departamento de Medicina Legal y Toxicología, Facultad de Medicina , Universidad de Granada , Granada , Spain , and.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.affiliation: c Centre of Molecular Anthropology for Ancient DNA Studies, Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martinez-Labarga
authors.affiliation: a GENYO (Pfizer-University of Granada-Andalusian Government Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research) , Granada , Spain .|b Laboratorio de Identificación Genética, Departamento de Medicina Legal y Toxicología, Facultad de Medicina , Universidad de Granada , Granada , Spain , and.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Lorente
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D053803:Forensic Genetics; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics; D056426:Genetic Loci; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005843:Geography; D006166:Guatemala; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Autosomal STRs; Mayan linguistic family; Native Americans; genetic diversity