High level of male-biased Scandinavian admixture in Greenlandic Inuit shown by Y-chromosomal analysis.

• Published in: Human Genetics
• Main Authors: Bosch, E, Calafell, F, Rosser, ZH, Nørby, S, Lynnerup, N, Hurles, ME, Jobling, MA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Asian Continental Ancestry Group; Chromosomes; Human; Y; Denmark; European Continental Ancestry Group; Genetic Markers; Greenland; Haplotypes; Humans; Iceland; Inuits; Male; Microsatellite Repeats; Norway; The ''Y''; greenlandic; inuit; inuits
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2381/15433; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-003-0913-9

We have used binary markers and microsatellites on the Y chromosome to analyse diversity in a sample of Greenlandic Inuit males. This sample contains Y chromosomes typical of those found in European populations. Because the Y chromosome has a unique and robust phylogeny of a time depth that precedes the split between European and Native American populations, it is possible to assign chromosomes in an admixed population to either continental source. On this basis, 58+/-6% of these Y chromosomes have been assigned to a European origin. The high proportion of European Y chromosomes contrasts with a complete absence of European mitochondrial DNA and indicates strongly male-biased European admixture into Inuit. Comparison of the European component of Inuit Y chromosomes with European population data suggests that they have their origins in Scandinavia. There are two potential source populations: Norse settlers from Iceland, who may have been assimilated 500 years ago, and the Danish-Norwegian colonists of the eighteenth century. Insufficient differentiation between modern Icelandic and Danish Y chromosomes means that a choice between these cannot be made on the basis of diversity analysis. However, the extreme sex bias in the admixture makes the later event more likely as the source. 16260