Genetic admixture patterns in Argentinian Patagonia

[Latinus]

As in other Latin American populations, Argentinians are the result of the admixture amongst different continental groups, mainly from America and Europe, and to a lesser extent from Sub-Saharan Africa.

However, it is known that the admixture processes did not occur homogeneously throughout the country.

Therefore, considering the importance for anthropological, medical and forensic researches, this study aimed to investigate the population genetic structure of the Argentinian Patagonia, through the analysis of 46 ancestry informative markers, in 433 individuals from five different localities.

Overall, in the Patagonian sample, the average individual ancestry was estimated as 35.8% Native American (95% CI: 32.2–39.4%), 62.1% European (58.5–65.7%) and 2.1% African (1.7–2.4%). Comparing the five localities studied, statistically significant differences were observed for the Native American and European contributions, but not for the African ancestry.

The admixture results combined with the genealogical information revealed intra-regional variations that are consistent with the different geographic origin of the participants and their ancestors. As expected, a high European ancestry was observed for donors with four grandparents born in Europe (96.8%) or in the Central region of Argentina (85%).

In contrast, the Native American ancestry increased when the four grandparents were born in the North (71%) or in the South (61.9%) regions of the country, or even in Chile (60.5%).

In summary, our results showed that differences on continental ancestry contribution have different origins in each region in Patagonia, and even in each locality, highlighting the importance of knowing the origin of the participants and their ancestors for the correct interpretation and contextualization of the genetic information.

Genetic admixture patterns in Argentinian Patagonia (plos.org)

 

[Leyva]

I always grew up thinking Argentinian people were very white until I joined anthropology forums. That study shows how amerindian they really are

My question is, do you think Argentinian people were more amerindian before the arrival of recent europeans like Italians that influenced greatly the gene pool? How amerindian do you guys believe they were?

 

[Latinus]

I always grew up thinking Argentinian people were very white until I joined anthropology forums. That study shows how amerindian they really are

My question is, do you think Argentinian people were more amerindian before the arrival of recent europeans like Italians that influenced greatly the gene pool? How amerindian do you guys believe they were?

1: I also had the same impression, of Argentina being more Euro than it really is. In Brazil, many people stereotype Argentinians as racist and Euro wannabe.

2: Yeah, I think Argentina was significantly more Amerindian before the great waves of European immigrants in the XIX and XX centuries. Argentina is the second mos European country in Latin America, after Uruguay, and the most populous region, Buenos Aires/Pampas, is also the region with most Euro DNA. In places like the northwest, with not much post-European immigration, you see many classical mestizo types, and bigger imput of Amerindian DNA.

3: I don't know how Amerindian they were before the Great Migration, probably within the castizo, harnizo range, plus some balanced mestizos, indo-mestizos and criollos.