Migration matrices and surnames in populations with different isolation patterns: Val di Lima (Italian Apennines), Val di Sole (Italian Alps), and La Cabrera (Spain).

Biodemographic methods are widely used to infer the genetic structure of human populations. In this study, we revise and standardize the procedures required by the migration matrix model of Malécot ([1950] Ann Univ Lyon Sci [A] 13:37-60), testing it in large historical-demographic databases of 85 populations from three mountain valleys with different degrees of isolation: Val di Lima (Italian Apennines, 21 parishes), Val di Sole, (Italian Alps, 27 parishes), and La Cabrera (Spain, 37 parishes). An add-on package (Biodem) for the R program is proposed to perform all calculations.

Variation at 16 STR loci in Rwandans (Hutu) and implications on profile frequency estimation in Bantu-speakers.

A data set of 16 autosomal STRs (the 13 CODIS loci plus HumCD4, HumFES, HumF13A1) was obtained in a sample of 52 unrelated Hutus from Rwanda. Genotypes at all loci met Hardy-Weinberg expectations with the exception of HumCSF1PO. No significant evidence of association across alleles at independent loci was obtained.

Kinship by isonymy and by gene frequencies: A comparison of population structures at different hierarchical population levels.

A comparison of population structures based on isonymy and on gene frequencies (ABO, Rh, Kell) was conducted for a sample of 28,205 individuals residing in three different provinces (Lucca, Massa Carrara, La Spezia) in northwest Italy, on the basis of both chronological and spatial subgroupings. Relationships between and within population subsamples were measured by means of kinship coefficients. The aim of this study was focused on kinship decay with geographic distance, associated with the great difference in location and variability between isonymic and genetic data.