Análisis de varios marcadores genéticos clásicos en la población de Costa Rica / Analysis of various classical genetic markers in the Costa Rica population

ABSTRACT

A study of several loci blood groups (ABO, Diego, Duffy, Kell, Kidd, Lewis, Lutheran, MNSs, P, Rhesus and Secretor), and Hp serum protein was carried out on a sample of 2,196 unrelated Costa Rican individuals of both sexes. Data was classified and analyzed according to geographic regions. Gene frequencies and the goodness of fit to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were estimated by the maximum likelihood method. A geographic structuring was observed in the Costa Rican population. All the regions of Costa Rica show higher heterozigosity values than the ones observed in the indigenous Costa Rican groups, but similar or slightly higher than the ones observed in the Spanish populations. The genetic distance analysis evidenced that the regions of Costa Rica group close to each other in intermediate positions between the Amerindians and the Spanish, fact that is coherent with the statement that attributes a intermediate origin to the general population of Costa Rica. The data contradicts the idea that the Central region has a radically different population than the rest of the country. The outcome of these markers revealed poor values of exclusion probability in forensic and paternity cases, which confirms the importance of their replacement for DNA markers in the outlines of human identification of judicial investigation systems. These results are similar to other studies made in Latin American populations.