Ethnicity has been associated with the incidence of diseases and consequently it is a cornerstone\nin medical genetic studies. It is mainly important in admixture populations, where the population\nstratification can produce spurious results that lead to erroneous conclusions. Consequently, population\nstratification has become one of the most important confounding factors in populationbased\ngenetic association studies, especially in Latino populations. Cartagena de Indias is a cosmopolitan\ncity with dissimilar ancestry proportions due to recent miscegenation. This population\nmainly exhibits African and Amerindian matrilineal ancestries. Nevertheless, important asymmetries\nin the paternal genetic history related to the complex patterns of migration in the colonial\nperiod increase the male genetic diversity in this population. As a result of this recent admixture,\npopulation stratification has arisen, where each subpopulation is not equally represented. Consequently,\nthe allele differences between cases and controls could be related with different frequencies\namong different population strata rather than the association of the genes with the disease.\nIn order to define the patrilineal substructure of the Cartagena�s population, a total of 130\nunrelated men were ancestrally studied using 15 Y-STR loci routinely employed in anthropological,\nforensic and population genetics. Our results show that Cartagena is an admixture population\nconsisting of European (80%), Amerindian (10%) and African ancestries (10%), which are represented by haplogroups R1b and I2a (xI2a1), Q-M242/Q-M3, and E1b1a/E1b1b, respectively.\nComplex genetic patterns found in Cartagena�s population emphasize the importance to know the\ngenetic variation in order to diminish the in consistence for future genetic association studies. In\naddition, our findings illustrate the complex genetic background of Cartagena population and\nreinforce the need to encompass more geographic regions to generate more robust data for anthropological\nand forensic applications.
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