Study of 27 Y-STR markers in United Arab Emirates population

Abstract

The recently introduced 6-dyes Yfiler® Plus multiplex kit which includes 27 Y-STR loci has been used to study 436 UAE Arab male individuals. In addition to the 17 Y-STRs traditionally used in Yfiler® multiplex kit, Yfiler® Plus has ten additional Y-STRs. It includes seven rapidly mutating Y-STRs (RM Y-STRs) namely DYS560, DYS576, DYS627, DYS518, DYS449 and DYF387S1ab, and three moderately mutating Y-STRs namely DYS481, DYS533 and DYS460. The RM Y-STRs were already proven to be powerful for discriminating closely related and unrelated males’ individuals. As a result, a total number of 419 haplotypes were observed out of 436 samples analysed of UAE Arab males’ population, whereas 15 haplotypes were shared between two individuals and one haplotypes were shared between three individuals. The discrimination capacity (DC) for the 27 loci was found to be 0.9618 whereas haplotype diversity (HD) was found to be 0.99982. AMOVA results showed that UAE population clustered along with Saudi Arabia East [Arab] population which indicates that they have a closer genetic relation. While it was standing away compared to other relevant populations. In conclusion, Yfiler® Plus multiplex kit showed higher power of discrimination than all previous studies conducted on the same population. This study considered the first study conducted using 27 Y-STR loci in this population. Geographic distribution of the populations analysed in this study are well reflected in the genetic distance results.