Dataset Information

The genomic history of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands.

ABSTRACT: The indigenous population of the Canary Islands, which colonized the archipelago around the 3^rd century CE, provides both a window into the past of North Africa and a unique model to explore the effects of insularity. We generate genome-wide data from 40 individuals from the seven islands, dated between the 3^rd-16^rd centuries CE. Along with components already present in Moroccan Neolithic populations, the Canarian natives show signatures related to Bronze Age expansions in Eurasia and trans-Saharan migrations. The lack of gene flow between islands and constant or decreasing effective population sizes suggest that populations were isolated. While some island populations maintained relatively high genetic diversity, with the only detected bottleneck coinciding with the colonization time, other islands with fewer natural resources show the effects of insularity and isolation. Finally, consistent genetic differentiation between eastern and western islands points to a more complex colonization process than previously thought.

SUBMITTER: Serrano JG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10427657 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The genomic history of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands.

Serrano Javier G JG Ordóñez Alejandra C AC Santana Jonathan J Sánchez-Cañadillas Elías E Arnay Matilde M Rodríguez-Rodríguez Amelia A Morales Jacob J Velasco-Vázquez Javier J Alberto-Barroso Verónica V Delgado-Darias Teresa T de Mercadal M Carmen Cruz MCC Hernández Juan Carlos JC Moreno-Benítez Marco A MA Pais Jorge J Ringbauer Harald H Sikora Martin M McColl Hugh H Pino-Yanes Maria M Ferrer Mariano Hernández MH Bustamante Carlos D CD Fregel Rosa R

Nature communications 20230815 1

The indigenous population of the Canary Islands, which colonized the archipelago around the 3rd century CE, provides both a window into the past of North Africa and a unique model to explore the effects of insularity. We generate genome-wide data from 40 individuals from the seven islands, dated between the 3rd-16rd centuries CE. Along with components already present in Moroccan Neolithic populations, the Canarian natives show signatures related to Bronze Age exp ...[more]

PMID: 37582830

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Project description:Evolutionary molecular studies of island radiations may lead to insights in the role of vicariance, founder events, population size and drift in the processes of population differentiation. We evaluate the degree of population genetic differentiation and fixation of the Canary Islands blue tit subspecies complex using microsatellite markers and aim to get insights in the population history using coalescence based methods. The Canary Island populations were strongly genetically differentiated and had reduced diversity with pronounced fixation including many private alleles. In population structure models, the relationship between the central island populations (La Gomera, Tenerife and Gran Canaria) and El Hierro was difficult to disentangle whereas the two European populations showed consistent clustering, the two eastern islands (Fuerteventura and Lanzarote) and Morocco weak clustering, and La Palma a consistent unique lineage. Coalescence based models suggested that the European mainland forms an outgroup to the Afrocanarian population, a split between the western island group (La Palma and El Hierro) and the central island group, and recent splits between the three central islands, and between the two eastern islands and Morocco, respectively. It is clear that strong genetic drift and low level of concurrent gene flow among populations have shaped complex allelic patterns of fixation and skewed frequencies over the archipelago. However, understanding the population history remains challenging; in particular, the pattern of extreme divergence with low genetic diversity and yet unique genetic material in the Canary Island system requires an explanation. A potential scenario is population contractions of a historically large and genetically variable Afrocanarian population, with vicariance and drift following in the wake. The suggestion from sequence-based analyses of a Pleistocene extinction of a substantial part of North Africa and a Pleistocene/Holocene eastward re-colonisation of western North Africa from the Canaries remains possible.

Dataset Information

The genomic history of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands.

Publications

The genomic history of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands.

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