Forensic ancestry analysis in two Chinese minority populations using massively parallel sequencing of 165 ancestry‐informative SNPs

Abstract

Ancestry inference based on SNPs with marked allele frequency differences in diverse populations (called ancestry-informative SNP (AISNP)) is rapidly developed with the technology advancements of massively parallel sequencing. Despite the decade of exploration and broad public interest in the peopling of East-Asians, the genetic landscape of Chinese Silk Road populations based on the AISNPs is still little known. In this work, 206 unrelated individuals from Chinese Uyghur and Hui populations were firstly genotyped by 165 AISNPs (The Precision ID Ancestry Panel) using the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine system. The ethnic origin of two investigated populations and population structures and genetic relationships were subsequently investigated. The 165 AISNPs panel not only can differentiate Uyghur and Hui populations but also has potential applications in individual identification. Comprehensive population comparisons and admixture estimates demonstrated a predominantly higher European-related ancestry (36.30%) in Uyghurs than Huis (3.66%). Overall, the Precision ID Ancestry Panel can provide good resolution at the intercontinental level, but has limitations on the genetic homogeneous populations, such as the Hui and Han. Additional population-specific AISNPs remain necessary to get better-scale resolution within geographically proximate populations in East Asia.