New Briana T, Algee-Hewitt Bridget F B, Spradley M Katherine, Fehren-Schmitz Lars, Hughes Cris E, Anderson Bruce E, Jasinski Marek E, Arciszewska Joanna, Zielińska Grażyna, Szargut Maria, Cytacka Sandra, Ossowski Andrzej
SNA International supporting the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Joint Base Pearl Harbor, Hickam, Hawaii, USA,
Humanities and Sciences Interdepartmental Programs, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
Hum Biol. 2021 Winter;93(1):33-50. doi: 10.13110/humanbiology.93.1.03.
The humanitarian crisis on the US-Mexico border is a long-standing and evolving crisis in which nearly 8,000 deaths have been reported in the last two decades. These deaths are largely distributed across the Arizona-Mexico and Texas-Mexico border regions, where demographic trends for immigrants attempting to cross into the United States have shifted dramatically. The demographic change and volume of immigrants seeking shelter in the United States present new challenges for the forensic practitioners entrusted with the identification of individuals who lose their lives during the final segment of their journey. Within this border context, this study investigated how genetic variation inferred from forensically significant microsatellites can provide valuable information on regions of origin for unidentified remains at the group level. To explore how to mobilize these genetic data to inform identification strategies, the authors conducted a comparative genetic analysis of identified and unidentified immigrant cases from the Arizona- and Texas-Mexico contexts, as well as 27 other Latin American groups. Allele frequencies were utilized to calculate , and relationships were visually depicted in a multidimensional scaling plot. A Spearman correlation coefficient analysis assessed the strength and significance of population relationships, and an agglomerative clustering analysis assessed population clusters. Results indicate that Arizona-Mexico immigrants have the strongest relationship (>80%) with groups from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and an indigenous group from southern Mexico. Texas-Mexico immigrants have the strongest relationships (>80%) with groups from Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. These findings agree with, and are discussed in comparison with, previously reported demographic trends, population genetics research, and population history analyses. The authors emphasize the utility and necessity of coupling genetic variation research with a nuanced anthropological perspective for identification processes in the US-Mexico border context.
美墨边境的人道主义危机是一场长期且不断演变的危机，在过去二十年里已报告了近8000人死亡。这些死亡大多分布在亚利桑那州与墨西哥以及得克萨斯州与墨西哥的边境地区，试图穿越进入美国的移民的人口结构趋势在这些地区发生了巨大变化。人口结构的变化以及寻求在美国避难的移民数量给负责识别在旅程最后阶段丧生人员的法医从业者带来了新挑战。在这种边境背景下，本研究调查了从具有法医意义的微卫星推断出的基因变异如何能够在群体层面为身份不明遗体的来源地区提供有价值的信息。为了探索如何利用这些基因数据为身份识别策略提供信息，作者对来自亚利桑那州与墨西哥以及得克萨斯州与墨西哥地区已识别和身份不明的移民案例以及其他27个拉丁美洲群体进行了比较基因分析。利用等位基因频率来计算，并用多维尺度图直观地描绘关系。斯皮尔曼相关系数分析评估了群体关系的强度和显著性，凝聚聚类分析评估了群体聚类。结果表明，亚利桑那州与墨西哥的移民与来自萨尔瓦多、危地马拉、墨西哥以及墨西哥南部一个原住民群体的关系最为密切（>80%）。得克萨斯州与墨西哥的移民与来自伯利兹、哥伦比亚、哥斯达黎加、萨尔瓦多、危地马拉、洪都拉斯和尼加拉瓜的群体关系最为密切（>80%）。这些发现与先前报道的人口结构趋势、群体遗传学研究和人口历史分析一致，并与之进行了比较讨论。作者强调了在美墨边境背景下的身份识别过程中，将基因变异研究与细致入微的人类学视角相结合的实用性和必要性。
