GENETIC POLYMORPHISMS IN 15 STR LOCI IN THE TURKISH POPULATION LIVING IN ISTANBUL PROVINCE

Abstract

Objective: Short tandem repeats (STRs) are short sequences of nucleotides that are repeated and distributed all over the genome. These polymorphisms enable investigation of the forensic, ancestral lineage and evolutionary studies in human population. Owing to the historical migration and ethnic groups, it is very valuable to evaluate genetic distances in Turkey. The aim of the present study is to examine the STR data of Istanbul and compare the genetic distances and allele frequency with the previously published data of 27 countries from Europe, Asia, America, Africa and Middle East. Material and Method: Peripheral blood samples were obtained from 400 healthy individuals. DNA samples were amplified using a commercial kit. Multiplex STRPCR (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) was used and the amplicons were evaluated on an ABI 3130 Genetic Analyzer. Results: Among all loci, D21S11 and D18S51 were the most polymorphic loci. The power of discrimination (PD) ranged from 0.8329 (TPOX) to 0.9722 (D18S51). The combined PD and probability of exclusion (PE) were found to be >0.99999999 and 0.99999671, respectively. Conclusion: In this study, six STR markers were selected to compare the genetic distances and allele frequency of the present results with the results of twenty-seven studies which were published previously. This study indicates that the population in Turkey is an intermediate between Europe, Middle East and Central Asia. Keywords: Human genetics, polymorphism, population genetics, short tandem repeat.