Detecting Sex-Biased Gene Flow in African-americans Through the Analysis of Intra- and Inter-Population Variation at Mitochondrial DNA and Y- Chromosome Microsatellites

Abstract

This study reports on variations at the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable region 1 (HVR-1) and at seven Y-chromosome microsatellites in an African-American population sample from Chicago, IL, USA. Our results support the hypothesis that the population studied had undergone a European malebiased gene flow. We show that comparisons of intraand inter-population diversity parameters between African-Americans, Europeans and Africans may help detect sex-biased gene flow, providing a complement to quantitative methods to estimate genetic admixture.

Keywords

• admixture
• african-americans
• mitochondrial dna (mtdna)
• sex-biased gene flow
• y-chromosome