Population genetic study in Hungarian canine populations using forensically informative STR loci

Abstract

Allele frequencies for 10 short tandem repeats (STRs) were determined using the StockMarks ® Dog Genotyping Kit (Applied Biosystems) from a pool of 668 unrelated dogs, consisting of 79 different breeds or breed variants from the Hungarian canine population. For the comparative statistical analysis, four pure bred, one mixed group – all individuals except from the four breeds – and considering to unequal representation of breeds the group of all pooled individuals (“All breeds”) were distinguished. The forensically informative values – Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), observed heterozygosity ( H obs), polymorphism information content (PIC), power of discrimination (PD), power of paternity exclusion (PE), linkage disequilibrium (LD) and fixation index ( F) were determined. The Hungarian pure bred dog populations could be distinguished by comparing the allele frequency values using G-statistics and calculating the F ST indices with pair-wise comparisons of inter-population molecular variance (AMOVA). The results showed that these 10 loci can be adequate for individual identification in forensic cases even in relatively inbred dog populations.