Interdisciplinary approach to the demography of Jamaica.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The trans-Atlantic slave trade dramatically changed the demographic makeup of the New World, with varying regions of the African coast exploited differently over roughly a 400 year period. When compared to the discrete mitochondrial haplotype distribution of historically appropriate source populations, the unique distribution within a specific source population can prove insightful in estimating the contribution of each population. Here, we analyzed the first hypervariable region of mitochondrial DNA in a sample from the Caribbean island of Jamaica and compared it to aggregated populations in Africa divided according to historiographically defined segments of the continent's coastline. The results from these admixture procedures were then compared to the wealth of histor

SUBMITTER: Deason ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3299582 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature