Detecting sex-biased gene flow in African-Americans through the analysis of intra- and inter-population variation at mitochondrial dna and y- chromosome microsatellites

Abstract

This study reports on variations at the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable region 1 (HVR-1) and at seven Y-chromosome microsatellites in an African-American population sample from Chicago, IL, USA.Our results support the hypothesis that the population studied had undergone a European male-biased gene flow.We show that comparisons of intra-and inter-population diversity parameters between African-Americans, Europeans and Africans may help detect sex-biased gene flow, providing a complement to quantitative methods to estimate genetic admixture.