Cuban DNA Study

[galvez]

The large amount of African DNA in Cuba was not a surprise to me. However, the 4% of mtDNA originating from Native American came as a surprise to me, since I thought Native Americans were virtually exterminated due to disease and warfare. Still, the percentage of Native American genes in the Cuban population appears to be much lower than in Puerto Rico. Moreover, Cuba used to have a larger White population, but they fled to the U.S. and Spain when Castro took over.

Hum Mutat. 1995;5(4):310-7.

African, Native American, and European mitochondrial DNAs in Cubans from Pinar del Rio Province and implications for the recent epidemic neuropathy in Cuba. Cuba Neuropathy Field Investigation Team.

Torroni A, Brown MD, Lott MT, Newman NJ, Wallace DC.

Department of Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.

Genetic predisposition, particularly specific mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) backgrounds, has been proposed as a contributing factor in the expression of an epidemic of bilateral optic neuropathy that has affected residents of Cuba since 1991. To substantiate or refute the possibility that specific subsets of mtDNAs could participate in disease expression, we took advantage of the heterogeneous ethnic origin of the Cuban population and the recent identification of a number of mtDNA polymorphisms that appear to be specific for Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans. The screening of both carefully selected people with epidemic neuropathy and control subjects from the Pinar del Rio Province for these polymorphisms revealed that African, Native American, and European mtDNA haplotypes were equally represented among case and control subjects, and suggested that approximately 50% of Cuban mtDNAs originated from Europeans, 46% from Africans, and 4% from Native Americans. These findings demonstrate that mutations arising in specific mtDNAs are unlikely to play a role in the epidemic neuropathy and indicate that analysis of mtDNA haplotypes can be a valuable tool for assessing the relative maternal contribution of Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans in a mixed population.

PMID: 7627185 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[Caipira]

According your text, approximately 50% of Cuban mtDNAs originated from Europeans, 46% from Africans, and 4% from Native Americans. But are this numbers from Cubans as a whole or white Cubans, for instance

[AWAR]

Yeah, there are quite a few Cubans who are visibly Negroid Is there any info about what part of the Cuban population they tested?

[galvez]

Caipira writes: "According your text, approximately 50% of Cuban mtDNAs originated from Europeans, 46% from Africans, and 4% from Native Americans. But are these numbers from Cubans as a whole or white Cubans, for instance?"

These numbers are probably from Cubans as a whole. Keep in mind, however, that many people who consider themselves "White" (especially in America) are not racially pure. However, these statistics, which generalize about the Cuban population, should not be taken to indicate that all Cubans are racially mixed with Negroid. The Native American component in the population as a whole is almost negligible, unlike Puerto Rico. There has always been a sizeable White Cuban population on the island and, especially after communism, abroad.