Genomic continuity of Argentinean Mennonites.
Mennonites are Anabaptist communities that originated in Central Europe about 500 years ago. They initially migrated to different European countries, and in the early 18thcentury they established their first communities in North America, from where they moved to other American regions. We aimed to analyze an Argentinean Mennonite congregation from a genome-wide perspective by way of investigating >580.000 autosomal SNPs. Several analyses show that Argentinean Mennonites have European ancestry without signatures of admixture with other non-European American populations. Among the worldwide datasets used for population comparison, the CEU, which is the best-subrogated Central European population existing in The 1000 Genome Project, is the dataset showing the closest genome affinity to the Mennonites. When compared to other European population samples, the Mennonites show higher inbreeding coefficient values. Argentinean Mennonites show signatures of genetic continuity with no evidence of admixture with Americans of Native American or sub-Saharan African ancestry. Their genome indicates the existence of an increased endogamy compared to other Europeans most likely mirroring their lifestyle that involve small communities and historical consanguineous marriages.
Unidade de Xenética, Departamento de Anatomía Patolóxica e Ciencias Forenses, Instituto de Ciencias Forenses, Facultade de Medicina, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, and GenPop Research Group, Instituto de Investigaciones Sanitarias (IDIS), Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago, Galicia, Spain.|Grupo de Investigación en Genética, Vacunas, Infecciones y Pediatría (GENVIP), Hospital Clínico Universitario and Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC), Galicia, Spain.
Jacobo
J
Pardo-Seco
PRICAI-Fundación Favaloro, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Cintia
C
Llull
PRICAI-Fundación Favaloro, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Gabriela
G
Berardi
PRICAI-Fundación Favaloro, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Andrea
A
Gómez
Hospital Dr Manuel Freire, Guatrache, La Pampa, Argentina.
Fernando
F
Andreatta
Grupo de Investigación en Genética, Vacunas, Infecciones y Pediatría (GENVIP), Hospital Clínico Universitario and Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC), Galicia, Spain.|Infectious Diseases and Vaccines Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain.
Federico
F
Martinón-Torres
PRICAI-Fundación Favaloro, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Ulises
U
Toscanini
Unidade de Xenética, Departamento de Anatomía Patolóxica e Ciencias Forenses, Instituto de Ciencias Forenses, Facultade de Medicina, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, and GenPop Research Group, Instituto de Investigaciones Sanitarias (IDIS), Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago, Galicia, Spain.|Grupo de Investigación en Genética, Vacunas, Infecciones y Pediatría (GENVIP), Hospital Clínico Universitario and Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC), Galicia, Spain.
Antonio
A
Salas
D001118:Argentina; D003241:Consanguinity; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics*; D005828:Genetics, Population; D015894:Genome, Human; D060005:Genotyping Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide