Demographic history of Canary Islands male gene-pool: replacement of native lineages by European

Abstract

Background: The origin and prevalence of the prehispanic settlers of the Canary Islands has attracted great multidisciplinary interest. However, direct ancient DNA genetic studies on indigenous and historical 17 th -18 th century remains, using mitochondrial DNA as a female marker, have only recently been possible. In the present work, the analysis of Y-chromosome polymorphisms in the same samples, has shed light on the way the European colonization affected male and female Canary Island indigenous genetic pools, from the conquest to present-day times.

The Celtic fringe of Britain: insights from small mammal phylogeography

“…If replacement or partial replacement of mtDNA phylogroups is common in a continental setting, then that makes suspect phylogeographic interpretations based solely on current genetic patterns (for a review, see Hewitt 2000). Techniques that can be applied to samples of varying antiquity are particularly valuable to test for replacement in both humans (Fregel et al 2009) and wild mammals, and, for the latter, ancient DNA studies and studies using museum specimens have demonstrated replacement events unequivocally in a continental context (Barnes et al 2002;Pergams et al 2003;Hofreiter et al 2007). If, as we suggest, climate is driving the replacement events, then not only does this influence the interpretation of phylogeographic patterns created in the past, it also has implications for the persistence and genetic architecture of species during current and future global warming.…”

HLA genes in Atlantic Celtic populations: are Celts Iberians?

“…Iberian-Tartesian language with ancient Gaelic language; also, R1b genetic marker high frequencies location also includes Iberian and Canary Islands (Fregel et al 2009;Arnaiz-Villena et al 2015). Herodotus placed Celts further than "Pyrene" (Mt.…”

“…Some Guanches were described as being tall, blue-eyed and with robust complexion (like Europeans) and other appeared to bear of a more graciles skeletum and were more similar to Mediterraneans (Braem, 2010;González, 1992). 10 % of Guanche mummies bore R1b2 and P (xR1a and R1b1b2) Y chromosome marker (Fregel et al 2009). This Guanche marker could come from Iberian Peninsula as reported for northern Atlantic populations after Last Ice Age retreat (Oppenheimer, 2007), and also may have gone from Iberia southwards to Canary Islands (Fregel et al 2009;Arnaiz-Villena et al 2015).…”

“…10 % of Guanche mummies bore R1b2 and P (xR1a and R1b1b2) Y chromosome marker (Fregel et al 2009). This Guanche marker could come from Iberian Peninsula as reported for northern Atlantic populations after Last Ice Age retreat (Oppenheimer, 2007), and also may have gone from Iberia southwards to Canary Islands (Fregel et al 2009;Arnaiz-Villena et al 2015). This is supported because widespread ancient Iberian language rock scripts have been found at Canary Islands (Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and El Hierro) (Arnaiz-Villena and Alonso- Garcia, 2001a;Arnaiz-Villena et al 2015).…”

Identification of c.483C>T polymorphism in the caprine tyrosinase-related protein 1 (TYRP1) gene

“…This analysis evidenced that the C-allele is almost fixed in Moroccan and Tunisian goats, and fixed in Canarian (Palmera, Tinerfeña and Majorera) breeds. This strong similarity in allelic frequencies between African and Polymorphism of the goat TYRP1 gene Moreover, analysis of mitochondrial and Ychromosome markers have revealed the presence of Berber haplotypes in the gene pool of Canary islanders at higher frequencies than in that of Iberian colonizers, a feature that suggests that these haplotypes entered the Canary islands as a consequence of a migratory movement originated at North Africa (Maca-Meyer et al, 2004;Fregel et al, 2009). In summary, our result is consistent with the hypothesis of a North African ancestry for Canarian goats but this interpretation still needs to be proved by surveying a representative number of genetic markers.…”