Comparative Study of 10 X-STR Markers in Populations of Northeast Argentina

Abstract

In northeast Argentina, different Amerindian communities share territory and history with settlers, mainly Europeans. Due to miscegenation, the current Argentinian population has a particular structure that can be described through the X chromosome variation. Our objectives are: to describe the variation of 10 X-STRs in urban populations of the Argentinian regions known as Gran Chaco and Mesopotamia; to report the forensic parameters of these STRs, and to estimate the European and indigenous genetic components in these regions. Population and forensic parameters were estimated for 419 individuals from the analysed populations, including two indigenous groups, Wichí and Mocoví, previously reported. Population structure was estimated through Fst and Rst distances and AMOVA calculations. The indigenous American and European components were assessed with STRUCTURE. X-STRs showed a high level of genetic variability in urban and indigenous populations. Indigenous people of the Gran Chaco region showed significant differentiation from the urban samples (Fst 5.5%) and also among themselves (Fst 5.3%). The genetic differentiation among urban groups is almost negligible instead population from Misión Nueva Pompeya differed from the rest of the city populations. Forensic parameters indicate that these X-STRs are useful as a complement to paternity tests. The set of 10 STRs could be a good tool for population differences.

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“…Genetic differences have also been found among different regions or provinces within Argentina, for several genetic polymorphisms, whether they were coding or non-coding markers (Corach et al, 2006;Di Santo Meztler et al, 2018;Muzzio et al, 2018;Sala et al, 2018;Caputo et al, 2021, among others). Interestingly, some differences emerged even when comparing Resistencia and MNP, which are located in the same province and only 425 km apart, as it was previously reported for non-coding markers (Di Santo Meztler et al, 2019). Our results showed less genetic differentiation among Argentinian populations, probably because the polymorphisms here analyzed are located in coding regions, having less chances for displaying variability.…”

“…Previous studies have shown genetic differences between these four populations using non coding X chromosome markers (SNPs, INDELs and STRs) (Di Santo Meztler, 2018;Di Santo Meztler et al, 2019). Also, differences between a native Wichí community of Chaco and the population of Resistencia were found in the OPRK1 gene (Raggio et al, 2018).…”

X chromosomal analysis in population genetics and forensic science: A mini review

“…Along with Alu repeats, the potential of X chromosomal haploblocks still to be explored by studying different population samples from different geographical regions to establish their credibility. While analyzing the difference at genetic level North-East Argentina Populations, (DI SANTO MEZTLER et al, 2019) the Found the usefulness of Alu repeats for the comparison of distantly related population samples.…”