Twin Town in South Brazil: a Nazi's experiment or a genetic founder effect?

Cândido Godói (CG) is a small municipality in South Brazil with approximately 6,000 inhabitants. It is known as the "Twins' Town" due to its high rate of twin births. Recently it was claimed that such high frequency of twinning would be connected to experiments performed by the German...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Alice Tagliani-Ribeiro, Mariana Oliveira, Adriana K Sassi, Maira R Rodrigues, Marcelo Zagonel-Oliveira, Gary Steinman, Ursula Matte, Nelson J R Fagundes, Lavinia Schuler-Faccini
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/41b2c5f9df5c424ab5dc936dc4f1be2b
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:41b2c5f9df5c424ab5dc936dc4f1be2b
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:41b2c5f9df5c424ab5dc936dc4f1be2b2021-11-18T06:52:26ZTwin Town in South Brazil: a Nazi's experiment or a genetic founder effect?1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0020328https://doaj.org/article/41b2c5f9df5c424ab5dc936dc4f1be2b2011-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21687665/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Cândido Godói (CG) is a small municipality in South Brazil with approximately 6,000 inhabitants. It is known as the "Twins' Town" due to its high rate of twin births. Recently it was claimed that such high frequency of twinning would be connected to experiments performed by the German Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele. It is known, however, that this town was founded by a small number of families and therefore a genetic founder effect may represent an alternatively explanation for the high twinning prevalence in CG. In this study, we tested specific predictions of the "Nazi's experiment" and of the "founder effect" hypotheses. We surveyed a total of 6,262 baptism records from 1959-2008 in CG catholic churches, and identified 91 twin pairs and one triplet. Contrary to the "Nazi's experiment hypothesis", there is no spurt in twinning between the years (1964-1968) when Mengele allegedly was in CG (P = 0.482). Moreover, there is no temporal trend for a declining rate of twinning since the 1960s (P = 0.351), and no difference in twinning among CG districts considering two different periods: 1927-1958 and 1959-2008 (P = 0.638). On the other hand, the "founder effect hypothesis" is supported by an isonymy analysis that shows that women who gave birth to twins have a higher inbreeding coefficient when compared to women who never had twins (0.0148, 0.0081, respectively, P = 0.019). In summary, our results show no evidence for the "Nazi's experiment hypothesis" and strongly suggest that the "founder effect hypothesis" is a much more likely alternative for explaining the high prevalence of twinning in CG. If this hypothesis is correct, then this community represents a valuable population where genetic factors linked to twinning may be identified.Alice Tagliani-RibeiroMariana OliveiraAdriana K SassiMaira R RodriguesMarcelo Zagonel-OliveiraGary SteinmanUrsula MatteNelson J R FagundesLavinia Schuler-FacciniPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 6, p e20328 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Alice Tagliani-Ribeiro Mariana Oliveira Adriana K Sassi Maira R Rodrigues Marcelo Zagonel-Oliveira Gary Steinman Ursula Matte Nelson J R Fagundes Lavinia Schuler-Faccini Twin Town in South Brazil: a Nazi's experiment or a genetic founder effect?
description	Cândido Godói (CG) is a small municipality in South Brazil with approximately 6,000 inhabitants. It is known as the "Twins' Town" due to its high rate of twin births. Recently it was claimed that such high frequency of twinning would be connected to experiments performed by the German Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele. It is known, however, that this town was founded by a small number of families and therefore a genetic founder effect may represent an alternatively explanation for the high twinning prevalence in CG. In this study, we tested specific predictions of the "Nazi's experiment" and of the "founder effect" hypotheses. We surveyed a total of 6,262 baptism records from 1959-2008 in CG catholic churches, and identified 91 twin pairs and one triplet. Contrary to the "Nazi's experiment hypothesis", there is no spurt in twinning between the years (1964-1968) when Mengele allegedly was in CG (P = 0.482). Moreover, there is no temporal trend for a declining rate of twinning since the 1960s (P = 0.351), and no difference in twinning among CG districts considering two different periods: 1927-1958 and 1959-2008 (P = 0.638). On the other hand, the "founder effect hypothesis" is supported by an isonymy analysis that shows that women who gave birth to twins have a higher inbreeding coefficient when compared to women who never had twins (0.0148, 0.0081, respectively, P = 0.019). In summary, our results show no evidence for the "Nazi's experiment hypothesis" and strongly suggest that the "founder effect hypothesis" is a much more likely alternative for explaining the high prevalence of twinning in CG. If this hypothesis is correct, then this community represents a valuable population where genetic factors linked to twinning may be identified.
format	article
author	Alice Tagliani-Ribeiro Mariana Oliveira Adriana K Sassi Maira R Rodrigues Marcelo Zagonel-Oliveira Gary Steinman Ursula Matte Nelson J R Fagundes Lavinia Schuler-Faccini
author_facet	Alice Tagliani-Ribeiro Mariana Oliveira Adriana K Sassi Maira R Rodrigues Marcelo Zagonel-Oliveira Gary Steinman Ursula Matte Nelson J R Fagundes Lavinia Schuler-Faccini
author_sort	Alice Tagliani-Ribeiro
title	Twin Town in South Brazil: a Nazi's experiment or a genetic founder effect?
title_short	Twin Town in South Brazil: a Nazi's experiment or a genetic founder effect?
title_full	Twin Town in South Brazil: a Nazi's experiment or a genetic founder effect?
title_fullStr	Twin Town in South Brazil: a Nazi's experiment or a genetic founder effect?
title_full_unstemmed	Twin Town in South Brazil: a Nazi's experiment or a genetic founder effect?
title_sort	twin town in south brazil: a nazi's experiment or a genetic founder effect?
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/41b2c5f9df5c424ab5dc936dc4f1be2b
work_keys_str_mv	AT alicetaglianiribeiro twintowninsouthbrazilanazisexperimentorageneticfoundereffect AT marianaoliveira twintowninsouthbrazilanazisexperimentorageneticfoundereffect AT adrianaksassi twintowninsouthbrazilanazisexperimentorageneticfoundereffect AT mairarrodrigues twintowninsouthbrazilanazisexperimentorageneticfoundereffect AT marcelozagoneloliveira twintowninsouthbrazilanazisexperimentorageneticfoundereffect AT garysteinman twintowninsouthbrazilanazisexperimentorageneticfoundereffect AT ursulamatte twintowninsouthbrazilanazisexperimentorageneticfoundereffect AT nelsonjrfagundes twintowninsouthbrazilanazisexperimentorageneticfoundereffect AT laviniaschulerfaccini twintowninsouthbrazilanazisexperimentorageneticfoundereffect
_version_	1718424287953551360

Twin Town in South Brazil: a Nazi's experiment or a genetic founder effect?

Ejemplares similares