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The genetic scenario of Mercheros: an under-represented group within the Iberian Peninsula
BACKGROUND: The general picture of human genetic variation has been vastly depicted in the last years, yet many populations remain broadly understudied. In this work, we analyze for the first time the Merchero population, a Spanish minority ethnic group that has been scarcely studied and historicall...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8672588/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34911433 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12864-021-08203-y |
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author | Flores-Bello, André Font-Porterias, Neus Aizpurua-Iraola, Julen Duarri-Redondo, Sara Comas, David |
author_facet | Flores-Bello, André Font-Porterias, Neus Aizpurua-Iraola, Julen Duarri-Redondo, Sara Comas, David |
author_sort | Flores-Bello, André |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The general picture of human genetic variation has been vastly depicted in the last years, yet many populations remain broadly understudied. In this work, we analyze for the first time the Merchero population, a Spanish minority ethnic group that has been scarcely studied and historically persecuted. Mercheros have been roughly characterised by an itinerant history, common traditional occupations, and the usage of their own language. RESULTS: Here, we examine the demographic history and genetic scenario of Mercheros, by using genome-wide array data, whole mitochondrial sequences, and Y chromosome STR markers from 25 individuals. These samples have been complemented with a wide-range of present-day populations from Western Eurasia and North Africa. Our results show that the genetic diversity of Mercheros is explained within the context of the Iberian Peninsula, evidencing a modest signal of Roma admixture. In addition, Mercheros present low genetic isolation and intrapopulation heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS: This study represents the first genetic characterisation of the Merchero population, depicting their fine-scale ancestry components and genetic scenario within the Iberian Peninsula. Since ethnicity is not only influenced by genetic ancestry but also cultural factors, other studies from multiple disciplines are needed to further explore the Merchero population. As with Mercheros, there is a considerable gap of underrepresented populations and ethnic groups in publicly available genetic data. Thus, we encourage the consideration of more ethnically diverse population panels in human genetic studies, as an attempt to improve the representation of human populations and better reconstruct their fine-scale history. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-021-08203-y. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8672588 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-86725882021-12-17 The genetic scenario of Mercheros: an under-represented group within the Iberian Peninsula Flores-Bello, André Font-Porterias, Neus Aizpurua-Iraola, Julen Duarri-Redondo, Sara Comas, David BMC Genomics Research BACKGROUND: The general picture of human genetic variation has been vastly depicted in the last years, yet many populations remain broadly understudied. In this work, we analyze for the first time the Merchero population, a Spanish minority ethnic group that has been scarcely studied and historically persecuted. Mercheros have been roughly characterised by an itinerant history, common traditional occupations, and the usage of their own language. RESULTS: Here, we examine the demographic history and genetic scenario of Mercheros, by using genome-wide array data, whole mitochondrial sequences, and Y chromosome STR markers from 25 individuals. These samples have been complemented with a wide-range of present-day populations from Western Eurasia and North Africa. Our results show that the genetic diversity of Mercheros is explained within the context of the Iberian Peninsula, evidencing a modest signal of Roma admixture. In addition, Mercheros present low genetic isolation and intrapopulation heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS: This study represents the first genetic characterisation of the Merchero population, depicting their fine-scale ancestry components and genetic scenario within the Iberian Peninsula. Since ethnicity is not only influenced by genetic ancestry but also cultural factors, other studies from multiple disciplines are needed to further explore the Merchero population. As with Mercheros, there is a considerable gap of underrepresented populations and ethnic groups in publicly available genetic data. Thus, we encourage the consideration of more ethnically diverse population panels in human genetic studies, as an attempt to improve the representation of human populations and better reconstruct their fine-scale history. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-021-08203-y. BioMed Central 2021-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8672588/ /pubmed/34911433 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12864-021-08203-y Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Flores-Bello, André Font-Porterias, Neus Aizpurua-Iraola, Julen Duarri-Redondo, Sara Comas, David The genetic scenario of Mercheros: an under-represented group within the Iberian Peninsula |
title | The genetic scenario of Mercheros: an under-represented group within the Iberian Peninsula |
title_full | The genetic scenario of Mercheros: an under-represented group within the Iberian Peninsula |
title_fullStr | The genetic scenario of Mercheros: an under-represented group within the Iberian Peninsula |
title_full_unstemmed | The genetic scenario of Mercheros: an under-represented group within the Iberian Peninsula |
title_short | The genetic scenario of Mercheros: an under-represented group within the Iberian Peninsula |
title_sort | genetic scenario of mercheros: an under-represented group within the iberian peninsula |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8672588/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34911433 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12864-021-08203-y |
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