Cabo Verde islands: different maternal and paternal heritage testifies the nature of its first settlers

Abstract

The Cabo Verde Archipelago was colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th century. The first male settlers were mostly European males who never exceeded 1% of the total population mainly constituted by slaves brought from the West African coast. No European women were among the settlers who went to Cabo Verde without their families and formed liaisons with slaves creating a new class of individuals, the “mullato”. Here, we compare the maternal and paternal heritage of present-day Cabo Verdeans, by looking to their mtDNA and Y-biallelic markers profile. There is a strong asymmetry concerning both markers. The sub-Saharan component account for 93% of the total mitochondrial lineages of Cabo Verdeans, but less than 21% of the Y-chromosomes. The high percentage of Y-chromosome markers with an European affiliation attests for the importance that few lineages existing at the beginning of the settlement became widespread in the population in just 500 years.