Genetic characterization of the Brazilian immigrant population in Lisboa with InDel genetic markers (P)

Migration is one of the main factors for genetic variability within populations. Currently, the Portuguese population, and particularly the population from Lisboa, welcomes a considerable number of immigrants. Brazilian immigrants are the main foreign community in Portugal, with about 80 000 individuals in 2015. Insertion/deletion polymorphisms - InDels - are characterized by the presence or absence of small DNA sequences. These variations constitute a group of genetic markers with advantages for forensic identification, especially in highly degraded biological samples, due to the small size of the amplification fragments. Furthermore, InDels not only are useful to solve complex cases of biological kinship, but they also have lower mutation rates. Presently, there is no available data for InDel markers of the Brazilian immigrant population living in Lisboa. Thus, our aim is to characterize this population by typing a group of individuals with a panel of 30 InDel and compare it with other main immigrant populations living in Lisboa (Angola, Cabo Verde, Mocambique, Guine-Bissau and Sao Tome e Principe). Therefore, we studied 207 Brazilian immigrants, typing samples with Investigator DIPplex (R) Kit. Fragments were detected by capillary electrophoresis using the ABI PRISM (R) 3130xl automated sequencer and results analyzed with GeneMapper v1.4 software. Statistical inference of the genetic data was carried out with Arlequin v3.5 software. The achieved genetic data allowed us to evaluate genetic distances between Portuguese population and immigrant populations. Our results confirm genetic differences between Portuguese population and Brazilian and PALOP's immigrant populations.