Mitochondrial genetic profile of the Yoruba population from Nigeria

Nigeria is located in the Gulf of Guinea, also known as the “giant of Africa”, being the seventh most populated country in the world. The territory has a high genetic and cultural diversity. Yoruba is the second major ethnic group (and the most spoken language), and its population is concentrated in the southern region of the country. Aiming the elaboration of an accurate forensic mitochondrial DNA database for this region, the mtDNA control region was analysed from 71 Yoruba individuals. 65 unique haplotypes was found resulting in a haplotype diversity of 0.9976 ± 0.0028. FST genetic distances were calculated, including previously published data from North, East, West Central and Southwest African populations. No significant differences were observed between Yoruba and the Nigerian population from the 1000 Genome project database (FST = - 0.00148, p = 0.5598) and with the geographically close population of Ghana (FST = 0.0124, p = 0.01386). The Yoruba population reported in this study have a mitochondrial genetic profile similar to populations of the West Africa region, probably due to continuous gene flow and ethnic affinities with these neighbouring countries.