Population genetic structure of traditional populations in the Peruvian Central Andes and implications for South American population history.

Molecular-based characterizations of Andean peoples are traditionally conducted in the service of elucidating continent-level evolutionary processes in South America. Consequently, genetic variation among "western" Andean populations is often represented in relation to variation among "eastern" Amazon and Orinoco River Basin populations. This west-east contrast in patterns of population genetic variation is typically attributed to large-scale phenomena, such as dual founder colonization events or differing long-term microevolutionary histories. However, alternative explanations that consider the nature and causes of population genetic diversity within the Andean region remain underexplored. Here we examine population genetic diversity in the Peruvian Central Andes using data from the mtDNA first hypervariable region and Y-chromosome short tandem repeats among 17 newly sampled populations and 15 published samples. Using this geographically comprehensive data set, we first reassessed the currently accepted pattern of western versus eastern population genetic structure, which our results ultimately reject: mtDNA population diversities were lower, rather than higher, within Andean versus eastern populations, and only highland Y-chromosomes exhibited significantly higher within-population diversities compared with eastern groups. Multiple populations, including several highland samples, exhibited low genetic diversities for both genetic systems. Second, we explored whether the implementation of Inca state and Spanish colonial policies starting at about ad 1400 could have substantially restructured population genetic variation and consequently constitute a primary explanation for the extant pattern of population diversity in the Peruvian Central Andes. Our results suggest that Peruvian Central Andean population structure cannot be parsimoniously explained as the sole outcome of combined Inca and Spanish policies on the region's population demography: highland populations differed from coastal and lowland populations in mtDNA genetic structure only; highland groups also showed strong evidence of female-biased gene flow and/or effective sizes relative to other Peruvian ecozones. Taken together, these findings indicate that population genetic structure in the Peruvian Central Andes is considerably more complex than previously reported and that characterizations of and explanations for genetic variation may be best pursued within more localized regions and defined time periods.

Diagnóstico genético preimplantacional: análisis de aneuploidías únicas / Preimplantational genetic diagnosis: single aneuploidies analysis

Introducción: De las causas más conocidas en cuanto a la falta del éxito en el embarazo con tratamientos de reproducción asistida son aquellas relacionadas a las aneuploidías cromosómicas presentes en los embriones. El diagnóstico genético preimplantacional (PGD) es una técnica empleada en reproducción asistida para detectar estas anomalías, seleccionando aquellos que sean cromosómicamente normales, para luego transferirlos al útero de la paciente. Los embriones con aneuploidías únicas podrían tener la capacidad de sobrevivir y lograr la implantación, y por lo tanto, sin diagnóstico previo, estas podrían pasar desapercibidas. Objetivos: Determinar la incidencia de aneuploidías únicas en embriones de buena calidad embrionaria en el día 3 de desarrollo hasta blastocisto. Diseño: Estadístico y experimental. Instituciones: Reprogenetics Latinoamérica y Centro de Reproducción asistida, de la Clínica Concebir. Material Biológico: Muestras de biopsia embrionaria. Metodología: Análisis comparativo de resultados a partir de la evaluación de cada muestra obtenida por biopsia en el día tercero y día quinto de desarrollo embrionario, realizando el PGD por hibridación in situ (FISH) y genómica comparada (aCGH), respectivamente. Resultados: El 62,9% de embriones que presentaron monosomías únicas al tercer día de desarrollo embrionario resultaron ser de 8 células. Pero cuando se evaluó por aCGH en día cinco, 42,3% resultó anormal, y de estos 37,5% perteneció al estadio de 8 células. El índice de monosomías únicas en blastocisto resultó ser 57,9% de un total de 84,2% de aneuploidías únicas. Conclusiones: Los embriones de 8 células en el tercer día de desarrollo embrionario son los más probables de llegar al estadio de blastocisto, así como presentar aneuploidías únicas.

Background: Known causes of unsuccessful pregnancy in couples undergoing assisted reproduction treatment include embryo aneuploidies. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a technique used in assisted reproduction in order to detect these abnormalities, select embryos chromosomally normal and subsequently transfer to the patients’ uterus. Embryos with single aneuploidies may have the ability to survive and achieve unnoticed implantation. Objectives: To determine incidence of single aneuploidies in good quality embryos in third day of development to blastocyst. Design: Statistical and experimental study. Setting: Reprogenetics Latin-America and Assisted Reproduction Center - Concebir. Biologic material: Samples of embryo biopsies. Methods: Comparative analysis of results from evaluation of each sample obtained by embryo biopsy on the third and fifth days of embryonic development, performing PGD by respectively in situ hybridization (FISH) and comparative genomics (aCGH). Results: On third day of embryonic development 62.9% of embryos with single monosomy had 8-cell morphology. Though when evaluated by aCGH in the blastocyst stage 42.3% were abnormal and 37.5% of these belonged to the 8-cell stage. Single monosomies index in the blastocyst stage was 57.9% in 84.2% of single aneuploidies. Conclusions: Eight-cell embryos on the third day of embryonic development are most likely to reach blastocyst stage and have single aneuploidies.

Mitochondrial DNA and the peopling of South America.

The initial peopling of South America is largely unresolved, in part because of the unique distribution of genetic diversity in native South Americans. On average, genetic diversity estimated within Andean populations is higher than that estimated within Amazonian populations. Yet there is less genetic differentiation estimated among Andean populations than estimated among Amazonian populations. One hypothesis is that this pattern is a product of independent migrations of genetically differentiated people into South America. A competing hypothesis is that there was a single migration followed by regional isolation. In this study we address these hypotheses using mtDNA hypervariable region 1 sequences representing 21 South American groups and include new data sets for four native Peruvian communities from Tupe, Yungay, and Puno. An analysis of variance that compared the combined data from western South America to the combined data from eastern South America determined that these two regional data sets are not significantly different. As a result, a migration from a single source population into South America serves as the simplest explanation of the data.