Insights on hair, skin and eye color of ancient and contemporary Native Americans

Thássia Mayra Telles Carratto; Letícia Marcorin; Guilherme Debortoli; Tábita Hünemeier; Heather Norton; Esteban Juan Parra; Erick C Castelli; Celso Teixeira Mendes-Junior

doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2020.102335

Insights on hair, skin and eye color of ancient and contemporary Native Americans

Forensic Sci Int Genet. 2020 Sep:48:102335. doi: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2020.102335. Epub 2020 Jun 11.

Authors

Thássia Mayra Telles Carratto¹, Letícia Marcorin², Guilherme Debortoli³, Tábita Hünemeier⁴, Heather Norton⁵, Esteban Juan Parra³, Erick C Castelli⁶, Celso Teixeira Mendes-Junior⁷

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Química, Laboratório de Pesquisas Forenses e Genômicas, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, 14040-901, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
² Departamento de Genética, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, 14049-900, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
³ Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, L5L 1C6, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
⁴ Departamento de Genética e Biologia Evolutiva, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508-090, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
⁵ Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, 45221, Cincinnati, OH, United States.
⁶ São Paulo State University (UNESP), Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Botucatu, SP, Brazil.
⁷ Departamento de Química, Laboratório de Pesquisas Forenses e Genômicas, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, 14040-901, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil. Electronic address: ctmendes@ffclrp.usp.br.

PMID: 32593164
DOI: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2020.102335

Abstract

Over the past few years, tools capable of predicting pigmentation phenotypes have been developed aiming to contribute for criminal and anthropological investigations. In this study, we used eight genetic systems to infer eye, hair, and skin color of ancient and contemporary Native Americans. To achieve this goal, we retrieved 61 SNPs from 42 samples available in free online repositories of DNA sequences. We performed pigmentation predictions using two freely available tools, HIrisPlex-S and Snipper, in addition to two other published models. This workflow made possible to predict all three phenotypes with at least one tool for 29 out of the 42 samples. Considering these 29 individuals, predictions for eye, hair, and skin color were obtained with HIrisPlex-S for 27, 28 and 27 individuals, respectively, while 24, 25 and 25 individuals had such predictions with Snipper. In general, ancient and contemporary Native Americans were predicted to have intermediate/brown eyes, black hair, and intermediate/darker skin pigmentation.

Keywords: Ancient Native Americans; HIrisPlex; HIrisPlex-S; IrisPlex; Snipper.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Alleles
American Indian or Alaska Native / genetics*
Eye Color / genetics*
Forensic Genetics
Genotype
Hair Color / genetics*
Humans
Models, Genetic
Phenotype
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide*
Skin Pigmentation / genetics*
Software*