Ancestry, diversity, and genetics of health-related traits in African-derived communities (quilombos) from Brazil

Brazilian quilombos are communities formed by enslaved Africans and their descendants all over the country during slavery and shortly after its abolition. Quilombos harbor a great fraction of the largely unknown genetic diversity of the African diaspora in Brazil. Thus, genetic studies in quilombos...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Functional & integrative genomics 2023-03, Vol.23 (1), p.74, Article 74
Main Authors: Joerin-Luque, Iriel A., Sukow, Natalie Mary, Bucco, Isabela Dall’Oglio, Tessaro, Joana Gehlen, Lopes, Claudemira Vieira Gusmão, Barbosa, Ana Angélica Leal, Beltrame, Marcia H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acclimatization
Adaptation
African People - genetics
Animal Genetics and Genomics
Biochemistry
Bioinformatics
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Brazil
Cell Biology
Diaspora
DNA, Mitochondrial
Genetic diversity
Genomics
Health Status
Humans
Life Sciences
Malaria
Microbial Genetics and Genomics
Mitochondria
Mitochondrial DNA
Plant Genetics and Genomics
Review
Rural areas
Slavery
Y chromosomes
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Summary:Brazilian quilombos are communities formed by enslaved Africans and their descendants all over the country during slavery and shortly after its abolition. Quilombos harbor a great fraction of the largely unknown genetic diversity of the African diaspora in Brazil. Thus, genetic studies in quilombos have the potential to provide important insights not only into the African roots of the Brazilian population but also into the genetic bases of complex traits and human adaptation to diverse environments. This review summarizes the main results of genetic studies performed on quilombos so far . Here, we analyzed the patterns of African, Amerindian, European, and subcontinental ancestry (within Africa) of quilombos from the five different geographic regions of Brazil. In addition, uniparental markers (from the mtDNA and the Y chromosome) studies are analyzed together to reveal demographic processes and sex-biased admixture that occurred during the formation of these unique populations. Lastly, the prevalence of known malaria-adaptive African mutations and other African-specific variants discovered in quilombos , as well as the genetic bases of health-related traits, are discussed here, together with their implication for the health of populations of African descent.
ISSN:1438-793X
1438-7948
1438-7948
DOI:10.1007/s10142-023-00999-0