Mitochondrial DNA studies of Lisbon immigrants from Portuguese speaking African Countries: bioinformatics contributions

Amorim, António; Afonso Costa, Heloísa; Vieira Silva, Cláudia; Ribeiro, Teresa; Porto, Maria João; Taveira, Nuno; Fernandes, Teresa

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/58939

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Authors

Amorim, António

Afonso Costa, Heloísa

Vieira Silva, Cláudia

Abstract(s)

Since the end of the 1970s Portugal had an important role in migratory movements, becoming a destiny for immigrants of a wide range of nationalities, mainly from African countries. According to PORDATA, until the end of 2014 there were approximately 40,000 immigrants from Cape Verde, 20,000 immigrants from Angola, 18,000 immigrants from Guinea-Bissau and 3,000 immigrants from Mozambique living in Portugal, and from those, more than 80% living in Lisbon region . This reality can be one of the main contributors for genetic variation of Lisbon population at the present and in the future. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has certain features that make it desirable for forensics, namely, high copy number, lack of recombination, and matrilineal inheritance. These mtDNA features are also important in evolutionary and population studies [2,3]. We aim to characterize mtDNA of immigrants from Portuguese Speaking African Countries (PALOP) living in Lisbon and their potential contribution to genetic variation of Lisbon population.