Research Findings

The figure above shows minor and major frequencies for all interested populations (MXL, IBS, FIN, and Mexican Mayan Speakers) and rsIDS. Minor allele frequencies are defined as the allele frequency that has the lowest frequency compared to the major allele frequency. 

Based on my results, there are only two SNPs that showed prevalence in MXL and IBS populations after analysis: rs182549 and rs4988235. In MXL populations, rs182549 had a frequency/prevalence of 0.258 and a frequency/prevalence of 0.5089 in IBS. On the other hand, rs4988235 showed an MXL minor allele prevalence of 0.242, while IBS showed a prevalence of 0.508. These minor allele frequencies are both the derived frequency for the SNP—this allele is the “mutated one.” For these two SNPs (rs182549 and rs4988235), the Mayan- speaking population showed zero prevalence. In MXL, Mayan-speaking, and IBS populations, there is a prevalence of 0 for the derived allele frequencies for: rs41525747, rs145946881, and rs41380347. Considering the Mayan-speaking population does not have any derived allele frequencies present, but only ancestral alleles (non-mutated alleles), I propose that Mayan-speaking populations do not have the presence of LP genes, but MXL and IBS populations do. This means the presence of LP in MXL, as seen in the figure above, is a post-colonial effect.

As mentioned in previous sections, allele frequencies for FIN were also used to better understand the patterns present between IBS, MXL, and Mayan populations. FIN was used to confirm if the two SNPs present in IBS are IBS-specific or present in high frequencies throughout northern Europe as well. So, FIN, IBS, and MXL have appeared frequencies for European-derived SNPs (only present in European populations). In other words, the African/ Saudi Arabian-derived SNPs (rs41525747, rs145946881, and rs41380347), which are mostly prevalent in such populations, were not found in MXL populations. 

So, MXL has the presence of European SNPs as a result of forced inheritance through Spaniard colonization. This can be proposed as a result of the two SNPs at minor allele frequencies being present only at high frequency in Europe/northern Europe and not in Africa (Figure 8). This can be further proposed as a result of Mexico being colonized by 

Spaniards and not any other European country in the 17th century (Hamnett, 2019), thus causing LP genes at intermediate frequency to be forcibly inherited from the Spaniard genome.