Admixture’s impact on Brazilian population
evolution and health
Brazil is a vast continental country home to the largest
population in Latin America and boasts the world’s largest
recently admixed population1
. The colonization process
brought approximately 5 million Europeans to Brazil,
alongside the forced migration of at least 5 million Africans
and the decimation of Indigenous populations, which once
included more than 10 million people speaking more than
1000 languages. This distinctive historical interplay shaped
a complex mosaic of genetic diversity, underscoring the
importance of detailed genomic studies. Nevertheless,
similar to other populations in the Global South2
, the Brazilian
population remains notably underrepresented in genomic
research, where there is a lack of studies investigating the
effects of this population’s admixture on its evolution, diversity,
and health status.
To address these gaps, a research group generated
2723 high-coverage whole-genome sequences of the
Brazilian population, encompassing urban, rural, and riverine
communities from all five geographical regions of Brazil.
This dataset reflects a diverse group of ethnic backgrounds,
including Afro-Brazilians and descendants of Indigenous
people, and provides a comprehensive representation of
Brazilian genomic diversity.
(Kelly Nunes et al. www.science.org, 15.05.2025. Adaptado.)
1admixed population: group of individuals formed through interbreeding
of two or more previously isolated populations.
2Global South: a group of countries mainly located in the Southern
Hemisphere that are often characterized as developing, less developed
or underdeveloped.
In the excerpt from the first paragraph “Nevertheless, similar
to other populations in the Global South”, the underlined word
expresses