Y chromosome haplotyping of the Iteso of North Eastern Uganda

Abstract

Haplogroups are mtDNA sequences polymorphism variations that have occurred for more than150000 years and correlate with the geographical origins of populations traced through the maternal lineages. A few new mutations, known as SNP's, happen every generation. This allows to retrace the genealogical tree of humanity with great accuracy and see patterns in the distribution of shared historical lineages. Most major haplogroups are many thousands of years old, typically going back to the Bronze Age, Neolithic, Mesolithic or even Paleolithic. The deeper the subclade the more recent the shared ancestor. The aim of this study is the assign haplogroups to each of the samples collected from Iteso males to establish an understanding of whether the Iteso share a common ancestry with some of their neighbors like the Karamojongs the IK and the people of south western Uganda. In this study, 35 Iteso male samples were genotyped for Y chromosome polymorphism and this was done by Sample collection following ethical considerations, DNA extraction and quantification for each sample followed by two PCR assays that is; Alu PCR and Allelic PCR after which gel electrophoresis was ran to assign the respective haplogroups to each sample and the data obtained was compared with published data such as for the Karamojongs, SW Uganda, and the IK. All the samples belonged to two haplogroups, E3A and B. E3a haplogroup had a frequency of 97% and haplogroup B was 3%.

The PCA plot showed a slightly and relatively close genetic distance between the IK and Karamojongs. It also showed closeness between the Iteso and the SW Uganda. The neighbor joining tree further indicates a close genetic distance between the IK and the karamojongs, between the Iteso and the people of SW Uganda. The greatest genetic distance was observed between the Karamojongs and the Iteso.

The Iteso and the people of SW Uganda were found to have a high frequency of haplogroup E3a and the neighbor joining tree shows short genetic distance which indicates a possibility of their common ancestry. The neighbor joining tree indicates a short genetic distance between the IK and the Karamojongs thus a possible common ancestry.