Valongo, genetic studies on an isolated Afro-Brazilian community

Abstract

A southern Brazilian isolated community of predominantly sub-Saharan African origin, with a total population of 74 individuals and high degree of inbreeding (F = 0.081) was studied. The small sizes of the breeding (35) and effective (21) populations, as well as the very small effective migration rate (4%), suggest a high probability for the occurrence of genetic drift. A sample was typed for fourteen blood genetic systems and most of these systems seem to reveal the founder effect. This evolutionary factor was probably responsible for the absence of some polymorphic alleles frequent in African populations, i.e.: ABO*B, RHD-RHCE*DCe, GPA-GPB*NS (MNSs*NS), GPA-GPB*NS U (MNSs*NSU), HBB*S, HP*2M and ESD*2. The most unusual allele frequency was that for BCHE*A, 0.27, four times higher than its highest estimated frequency and fifty times higher than that those observed in African populations. Considering the allele frequencies of the Sub-Saharan African (A) and European (E) ancestral populations, the population studied can be quantified as containing 97.33% ± 10.41 of A alleles and 2.67% ± 10.41 of E alleles.

Keywords

• isolated community
• polymorphism
• random genetic drift
• blood systems
• admixture