Latin Americans show wide-spread Converso ancestry and imprint of local Native ancestry on physical appearance

Juan-Camilo Chacón-Duque , Kaustubh Adhikari , Macarena Fuentes-Guajardo , Javier Mendoza-Revilla , Victor Acuña-Alonzo (1) , Rodrigo Barquera , Mirsha Quinto-Sánchez , Jorge Gómez-Valdés , Paola Everardo Martínez , Hugo Villamil-Ramírez , Tábita Hünemeier (2) , Virginia Ramallo , Caio Silva de Cerqueira , Malena Hurtado , Valeria Villegas , Vanessa Granja , Mercedes Villena (3) , René Vasquez (3) , Elena Llop (4) , José Sandoval , Alberto Salazar-Granara , Maria-Laura Parolin , Karla Sandoval , Rosenda Peñaloza-Espinosa , Hector Rangel-Villalobos , Cheryl Winkler , William Klitz (5) , Claudio Bravi (6) , Julio Molina (7) , Daniel Corach (8) , Ramiro Barrantes (9) , Verónica Gomes , Carlos Resende , Leonor Gusmão (10) , Antonio Amorim (11) , Yali Xue (12) , Jean-Michel Dugoujon (13) , Pedro Moral (14) , Rolando González-José , Lavinia Schuler-Faccini , Francisco Salzano , Maria-Cátira Bortolini , Samuel Canizales-Quinteros (15) , Giovanni Poletti (16) , Carla Gallo (16) , Gabriel Bedoya (16) , Francisco Rothhammer (4) , David Balding , Garrett Hellenthal (17) , Andrés Ruiz-Linares (18, 19)

1 Molecular Genetics Laboratory
2 Departamento de Genética
3 Instituto Boliviano de Biologıa de la Altura
4 Facultad de Medicina & Instituto de Alta Investigacion
5 School of Human Evolution and Social Change
6 IMBICE - Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celular [La Plata]
7 Centro de Investigaciones Biomédicas de Guatemala
8 Servicio de Huellas Digitales Genéticas [Buenos Aires]
9 Escuela de Biologia
10 Population Genetics
11 ULISBOA - Universidade de Lisboa = University of Lisbon
12 Human Evolution
13 AMIS - Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de Synthèse
14 University of Barcelona
15 Unit of Molecular Biology and Genomic Medicine
16 Laboratorio de Genética Molecular
17 UCL - University College of London [London]
18 UCL-GEE - Dept of Genetics, Evolution and Environment [London]
19 ADES - Anthropologie bio-culturelle, Droit, Ethique et Santé

Historical records and genetic analyses indicate that Latin Americans trace their ancestry mainly to the intermixing (admixture) of Native Americans, Europeans and Sub-Saharan Africans. Using novel haplotype-based methods, here we infer sub-continental ancestry in over 6,500 Latin Americans and evaluate the impact of regional ancestry variation on physical appearance. We find that Native American ancestry components in Latin Americans correspond geographically to the present-day genetic structure of Native groups, and that sources of non-Native ancestry, and admixture timings, match documented migratory flows. We also detect South/East Mediterranean ancestry across Latin America, probably stemming mostly from the clandestine colonial migration of Christian converts of non-European origin (Conversos). Furthermore, we find that ancestry related to highland (Central Andean) versus lowland (Mapuche) Natives is associated with variation in facial features, particularly nose morphology, and detect significant differences in allele frequencies between these groups at loci previously associated with nose morphology in this sample.

Domaines: Génétique humaine; Génétique des populations [q-bio.PE]; Anthropologie biologique

Juan-Camilo Chacón-Duque, Kaustubh Adhikari, Macarena Fuentes-Guajardo, Javier Mendoza-Revilla, Victor Acuña-Alonzo, et al.. Latin Americans show wide-spread Converso ancestry and imprint of local Native ancestry on physical appearance. Nature Communications, 2018, 9, pp.5388. ⟨10.1038/s41467-018-07748-z⟩. ⟨hal-02052572⟩