D1S80 locus variability in South American Indians

We have studied the hypervariable D1S80 locus in 185 individuals from five South American Indian tribes, integrating these results with previous investigations. Three alleles (*18, *24 and *30) were common to all tribes, but their Frequencies varied between northern and southern populations. Brazilian tribes have a high frequency of *30 (average 35%) while in Argentinian and Chilean Indian populations this allele is present, on average, in 7% of the chromosomes only. Allele *24, the most common in other ethnic groups, was observed in 10% and 25% of northern and southern Amerindians respectively. Genetic distance and dendrogram analyses placed the Argentinian and Chilean tribes closer to Brazilian Caucasians, suggesting non-Indian admixture among them.