Mitochondrial DNA sequence analysis of a native Bolivian population

Afonso Costa, H.; Carvalho, M.; Lopes, V.; Balsa, F.; Bento, A.M.; Serra, A.; Andrade, L.; Anjos, M.J.; Vide, M.C.; Pantoja, S.; Vieira, D.N.; Corte-Real, F.

doi:10.1016/j.jflm.2010.02.011

« Previous Next »Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine
Volume 17, Issue 5 , Pages 247-253, July 2010

Mitochondrial DNA sequence analysis of a native Bolivian population

H. Afonso Costa, Msc, Intern
- Forensic Genetics Service, Centre Branch, National Institute of Legal Medicine, Largo da Sé Nova, 3000-213 Coimbra, Portugal
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +351 239 854 230; fax: +351 239 820 549.
M. Carvalho, Msc, Forensic Expert
- Forensic Genetics Service, Centre Branch, National Institute of Legal Medicine, Largo da Sé Nova, 3000-213 Coimbra, Portugal
V. Lopes, Bsc, Forensic Expert
- Forensic Genetics Service, Centre Branch, National Institute of Legal Medicine, Largo da Sé Nova, 3000-213 Coimbra, Portugal
F. Balsa, Msc, Intern
- Forensic Genetics Service, Centre Branch, National Institute of Legal Medicine, Largo da Sé Nova, 3000-213 Coimbra, Portugal
A.M. Bento, Msc, Intern
- Forensic Genetics Service, Centre Branch, National Institute of Legal Medicine, Largo da Sé Nova, 3000-213 Coimbra, Portugal
A. Serra, Bsc, Forensic Expert
- Forensic Genetics Service, Centre Branch, National Institute of Legal Medicine, Largo da Sé Nova, 3000-213 Coimbra, Portugal
L. Andrade, Msc, Forensic Expert
- Forensic Genetics Service, Centre Branch, National Institute of Legal Medicine, Largo da Sé Nova, 3000-213 Coimbra, Portugal
M.J. Anjos, Bsc, Director
- Forensic Genetics Service, Centre Branch, National Institute of Legal Medicine, Largo da Sé Nova, 3000-213 Coimbra, Portugal
M.C. Vide, Bsc, Former Director
- Forensic Genetics Service, Centre Branch, National Institute of Legal Medicine, Largo da Sé Nova, 3000-213 Coimbra, Portugal
S. Pantoja, Phd, Professor
- University of La Paz, Bolivia
D.N. Vieira, Phd, President
- National Institute of Legal Medicine, Portugal
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal
F. Corte-Real, Phd, Director
- National Institute of Legal Medicine, Portugal
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal

Received 10 July 2009; received in revised form 4 December 2009; accepted 13 February 2010.

Abstract

Mitochondrial DNA analysis is very useful for the interpretation of the history of human migration and to estimate the frequency of a haplotype in the forensic context. From a human settlement perspective, La Paz area is greatly interesting since the first planned city of the region is located there. Samples from 110 individuals from La Paz were studied analysing the polymorphisms in the D-loop, hypervariable region I (HVI) and hypervariable region II (HVII) in order to verify the genetic diversity. The aim of this study was to start the creation of a population database in order to obtain the genetic interpopulation variability and classify haplotypes into characteristic haplogroups of South America. A total of 97 different haplotypes were identified, 90 being unique, expressed by 122 polymorphic nucleotide positions. Nucleotide and sequence diversity were estimated to be 0.015 ± 0.0075 and 0.996, respectively. Haplogroup distribution in the samples was 57.27% B4, 19.09% C1, 10.00% A2, 3.64% D1, 2.73% D4h3, 1.82% H, and 0.91% for each of the haplogroups A4, B4c1a, CZ, D4J, M7a and M8/N9b. The rate of length heteroplasmy was 36.36% in HVI and 52.73% in HVII. Phylogenetic analysis reveals proximity to the Korean, Chilean aboriginal, Japanese and Australian populations. The estimated genetic variability of the studied population was high, suggesting an early settlement.

Keywords: Mitochondrial DNA typing, Hypervariable region I, Hypervariable region II, Haplogroup, Bolivia