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Mitochondrial portrait of the Cabo Verde archipelago: the Senegambian outpost of Atlantic slave trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2002

A. BREHM
Affiliation:
Centre of Biological and Geological Sciences, University of Madeira, Campus of Penteada, 9000 Funchal, Portugal
L. PEREIRA
Affiliation:
IPATIMUP (Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto) R. Dr. Roberto Frias s/n 4200 Porto, Portugal Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto. Praça Gomes Teixeira. 4099-002 Porto, Portugal
H.-J. BANDELT
Affiliation:
Fachbereich Mathematik, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
M. J. PRATA
Affiliation:
IPATIMUP (Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto) R. Dr. Roberto Frias s/n 4200 Porto, Portugal Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto. Praça Gomes Teixeira. 4099-002 Porto, Portugal
A. AMORIM
Affiliation:
IPATIMUP (Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto) R. Dr. Roberto Frias s/n 4200 Porto, Portugal Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto. Praça Gomes Teixeira. 4099-002 Porto, Portugal
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Abstract

In order to study the matrilineal genetic composition in Cabo Verde (Republic of Cape Verde), an archipelago that used to serve as a Portuguese entrepôt of the Atlantic slave trade, we have analysed a total of 292 mtDNAs sampled from the seven inhabitated islands for the hypervariable segment I (HVS-I) and some characteristic RFLPs of the coding regions. The different settlement history of the northwestern group of the islands is well reflected in the mtDNA pool. The total Cabo Verde sample clearly displays the characteristic mitochondrial features of the Atlantic fringe of western Africa and testifies to almost no mitochondrial input from the Portuguese colonizers.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© University College London 2002

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