Population genetic data for 16 STR loci in Slovakia

Mutational analysis of 16 STR markers in the Slovak population

BACKGROUND

Short tandem repeats (STRs) are genetic markers frequently used for human identification and paternity testing. They are highly mutable, which may occasionally lead to inconsistencies between the genotypes of parents and their children. As the mutation rates of individual STR markers can vary among populations, population-specific data are of high importance.

AIM

To investigate the mutation rates of 16 STR markers in the Slovak population.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

In this study, we analysed the germline mutation rates of 16 STR markers (TH01, D3S1358, vWA, D21S11, D16S539, D1S1656, D19S433, SE33, D10S1248, D22S1045, D12S391, D8S1179, D2S1338, D2S441, D18S51 and FGA) in the Slovak population. At these loci, we analysed 42 096 allelic transfers and identified 61 mutation events.

RESULTS

The loci with the highest overall mutation rates were SE33 and FGA, while no mutations were identified in TH01, D19S433 and D22S1045. The average paternal mutation rate was higher than the maternal mutation rate. All but one mutation consisted of gains or losses of a single repeat unit and the overall mutation rate was estimated to be 1.45 x10^-3 per meiosis.

CONCLUSION

This study provides data which can be used to further strengthen the correct paternity index calculations and reliability of paternity testing in Slovakia.

Population and forensic analysis of 9 non-CODIS markers in Slovak population

Genetic analyses of STR markers provide data for several important applications, including criminal caseworks, kinship analyses and population studies. In this study, we describe the parameters of nine STR markers (D2S1360, D3S1744, D4S2366, D5S2500, D6S474, D7S1517, D8S1132, D10S2325, D21S2055) in Slovak population and compare them with several European and worldwide populations. Since these markers are not commonly used in forensic practice, our data might provide subsidiary discriminatory power in the most demanding criminal examinations, where additional markers need to be analyzed. Moreover, we performed the MDS analysis and constructed a phylogenetic tree representing genetic relationships between several European populations based on Nei's D_A distance. We show that the analysis of just 9 markers is sufficient for reliable clustering of different European populations and their separation from the populations from other geographical areas. Taken together, our data provide a reliable dataset characterizing the Slovak population, which might serve as a basis for criminal, population and kinship studies.