Variability of paternal lineages in two populations of Argentinian Northwest: Santiago del Estero and Tucumán

Abstract

Continental origin as inferred from Y chromosome haplogroups is analyzed in populations from Santiago del Estero and San Miguel de Tucumán with the purpose of expanding the phylogeographic map of Argentinian paternal lineages. Two hundred and eighty-three blood samples were collected with familial information from male volunteer donors at public and private health centers. By means of allele-specific PCR, 18 biallelic markers commonly found in contemporary Argentina were typed from the non-recombinant region of the Y chromosome. Eighty-nine percent of the lineages were from Eurasian origin, 7% American and 4% were identified as African and/or Southwest Asian descent, owing to their assignment to the E1b1a1 lineage. Haplogroup frequencies of current populations were similar to the populations from Pampa, Cuyo and Northwest regions. Samples from the private health center of Tucumán demonstrated allochthonous haplogroup in similar frequencies to those reported in Europe and the Middle East, confirming that the migratory contingents with the greatest number of immigrants —Spaniards, Italians and Arabs— have left their mark on the gene pool of current populations. The pattern of distribution of continental Y-chromosomal haplogroups is indistinguishable from that found among Argentine populations in the northwest or in other regions, and it is consistent with archaeological, ethnohistorical and census information from Santiago del Estero and San Miguel de Tucumán.