Heterogeneity of Y chromosome markers among Brazilian Amerindians

The allele frequency distribution of DYS19 and DYS199 loci were analyzed in 59 Brazilian Amerindians from five tribes from the Amazon region (Zoé, Awá-Guajá, Urubú-Kaapór, Katuena, and Kayapó, Xikrin of Bacajá village). Three different alleles of the DYS19 microsatellite (182-bp, 186-bp, and 190-bp) were found at average frequencies of 0.08, 0.85, and 0.07, respectively. The DYS199-T allele was identified in 78% of the Amerindians studied (43/55), the frequencies varying from 0.46-0.93. Four different haplotypes were found, the combination DYS19-186/DYS199-T being the most common (average frequency of 0.65), followed by DYS19-186/DYS199-C with an average frequency of 0.22. These four haplotypes have been found in five other Brazilian tribes, and most of them were also identified in Native populations from South, Central and North America. The observed variability at the DYS19 microsatellite is probably due to forward or back mutations from the putative ancestral 186-bp allele, since the mutation rate of this locus is high and the post-Columbian admixture of the Brazilian tribes studied is very low or undetectable to explain these data. On the other hand, the DYS19/DYS199 haplotype distribution may suggest that the two most common haplotypes (186-bp/T and 186-bp/C) were present among the population(s) that peopled the New World. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 11:481-487, 1999. Copyright 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.