Author
Affilliation
Abstract
The Transatlantic Slave Trade transported more than 9 million Africans to the Americas between the early 16th and the mid-19th centuries. We performed a genome-wide analysis using 6,267 individuals from 25 populations to infer how different African groups contributed to North-, South-American, and Caribbean populations, in the context of geographic and geopolitical factors, and compared genetic data with demographic history records of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. We observed that West-Central Africa and Western Africa-associated ancestry clusters are more prevalent in northern latitudes of the Americas, whereas the South/East Africa-associated ancestry cluster is more prevalent in southern latitudes of the Americas. This pattern results from geographic and geopolitical factors leading to population differentiation. However, there is a substantial decrease in the between-population differentiation of the African gene pool within the Americas, when compared with the regions of origin from Africa, underscoring the importance of historical factors favoring admixture between individuals with different African origins in the New World. This between-population homogenization in the Americas is consistent with the excess of West-Central Africa ancestry (the most prevalent in the Americas) in the United States and Southeast-Brazil, with respect to historical-demography expectations. We also inferred that in most of the Americas, intercontinental admixture intensification occurred between 1750 and 1850, which correlates strongly with the peak of arrivals from Africa. This study contributes with a population genetics perspective to the ongoing social, cultural, and political debate regarding ancestry, admixture, and the mestizaje process in the Americas.
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Citation
GOUVEIA, Mateus H. et al. Origins, Admixture Dynamics, and Homogenization of the African Gene Pool in the Americas. Molecular Biology and Evolution, v. 37, n. 6, p. 1647–1656, 2020.
DOI
10.1093/molbev/msaa033
ISSN
0737-4038
Notes
BARRETO, Mauricio Lima. Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Centro de Integração de Dados e Conhecimento para Saúde. 1Departamento de Genética, Ecologia e Evolução, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo
Horizonte, MG, Brazil
2Instituto de Pesquisa Rene Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
3Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, MD
4Departamento de Estatística, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
5Laboratorio de Genomica, Centro de Laboratórios Multiusuário (CELAM), ICB, UFMG, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
6Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD
7Laboratório de Hansenıase, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundaçao Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
8Laboratório de Genética Humana e Médica, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas, Universidade Federal do Para – Campus Guama, Belem,
PA, Brazil
9Instituto de Ciências Exatas e Tecnológicas, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Campus UFV-Florestal, Florestal, MG, Brazil
10Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD
11N ucleo de Ensino e Pesquisas do Instituto M ario Penna – NEP-IMP, Bairro Luxemburgo, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
12Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Biosciences Institute, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
13Departamento de Patologia, Genética e Evolução, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas e Naturais, Universidade Federal do Triângulo
Mineiro, Uberaba, MG, Brazil
14Melbourne Integrative Genomics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
15Human Genome and Stem Cell Research Center, Biosciences Institute, University of S~ao Paulo, S~ao Paulo, SP, Brazil
16Beagle, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
17Mosaico Translational Genomics Initiative, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
18Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
19Cancer Genomics Research Laboratory, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD
20Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
21Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru
22Instituto Nacional de Salud, Lima, Peru
23Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ci^encias, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
24CIBIO/InBIO: Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, Vairao, Portugal
25Instituto do Coração, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
26Instituto de Saúde Coletiva, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, BA, Brazil
27Center of Data and Knowledge Integration for Health (CIDACS), Fundac¸~ao Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Salvador, Brazil
28Programa de Pós-Graduação em Epidemiologia, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, RS, Brazil
29Department of Genetics and Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
30Instituto de Estudos Avanc¸ados Transdisciplinares, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
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