Polymorphisms of six Y-chromosome STRs in a Chinese population

The polymorphic short tandem repeat (STR) loci of six Y-chromosome markers were investigated in 112 unrelated Chinese males using a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Allele and haplotype frequencies for the Y-specific STR loci DYS19, DYS385, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391 and DYS393 were analyzed by the Y-PLEX™ 6 Kit. The commonest allele for each locus was: DYS19, allele 15; DYS385, allele 12; DYS389II, allele 28; DYS390, allele 23; DYS391, 10; and DYS393, allele 12. Gene diversity value was calculated from the allelic frequency for each locus. The DYS385 locus proved to be highly polymorphic (0.890), DYS391 showed the lowest value (0.489), and the other loci showed values ranging from 0.646 to 0.897. A total of 99 haplotypes were observed in six Y-specific STR loci, the haplotype diversity was raised to 0.999. The results revealed that a set of six Y-specific STR loci were able to discriminate most of the male individuals in the Chinese population.