Genetic attributes of the YHRD minimal haplotype in 10 provinces of Argentina

We investigated nine Y-STRs on 1136 unrelated males from 10 provinces and three aboriginal tribes of Argentina. The urban populations depicted 654 different haplotypes (66%) and a haplotype diversity (HD) value of 0.9967. Meanwhile, the Amerindian groups ranged from 20 to 26 different haplotypes (62.5-38.2%) and the HD values from 0.8635 to 0.9586. By AMOVA it was determined a remarkable homogeneous haplotype distribution, nevertheless a certain degree of genetic substructure was detected in the North region, in particular in Salta population. Genetic distance allowed to identify three clusters one of them included Salta population and the Amerindian tribes. The results presented herein showed the impact of the European male genetic contribution on the aboriginal gene pool that can be, at present, assessed by analyzing the nowadays extant population. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.