Premium
Mitochondrial control–region sequence variation in the Corsican population, France
Author(s) -
Varesi L.,
Memmí M.,
Cristofari M.C.,
Mameli G.E.,
Calò C.M.,
Vona G.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6300(200005/06)12:3<339::aid-ajhb4>3.0.co;2-u
Subject(s) - corsican , mtdna control region , hypervariable region , population , mitochondrial dna , biology , hum , sequence (biology) , evolutionary biology , genetic variation , genetics , haplogroup , geography , haplotype , demography , genotype , gene , history , art history , philosophy , linguistics , sociology , performance art
The mtDNA sequence variation of the hypervariable segment I of the control region was studied in 47 unrelated individuals of Corsican origin from Corte (Corsica, France). Thirty‐one different sequences were identified by 40 variable sites, of which five involve transversions. The nucleotide diversity among the sequences was estimated as 1.03%. The pairwise difference agreed with the model proposed by Rogers and Harpending ([1992] Mol Biol Evol 9:552–569) and appeared bell‐shaped, with only one peak at 3.71, indicating the occurrence of a single episode of demographic expansion roughly 14,443 to 41,584 years ago. From our results it seems that the ancestral Corsican population expanded more recently than all other studied European populations. Compared to other populations by genetic distances and a neighbor‐joining tree, Corsicans appear most closely linked to the Basques and Sardinians than to other populations. Although the results substantiate an east‐to‐west migration, some problems are evident: 1) the estimates of demographic expansion are not in agreement with paleontological data; 2) the expansion occurred later than the expansion of the Sardinian population; and 3) the genetic affinity between Corsicans, Basques, and Sardinians. Answers will need to come from archaeological, paleontological, genetic, geological, and climatological observations. Finally, the study of mtDNA confirms what had already been shown with classic genetic markers. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 12:339–351, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.