Haplotype frequencies of 17 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat loci from the Cukurova region of Turkey.

Aim: To investigate the distribution of 17 Y-short tandem repeat (STR) loci in the population of the Cukurova region of Turkey.

Methods: In the period between 2009 and 2010, we investigated the distribution of 17 Y-STRs in a sample of 249 unrelated healthy men from the Cukurova region of Turkey. Genomic DNA was extracted with InstaGene matrix and Y-STRs were determined using the AmpFISTR Yfiler PCR amplification kit. Gene and haplotype diversity values were estimated using the Arlequin software. To compare our data to other populations, population pairwise genetic distances and associated probability values were calculated using the Y Chromosome Haplotype Reference Database Web site software.

Results: At 17 Y-STR loci we detected 148 alleles. The lowest gene diversity in this region was 0.51 for DYS391 and the highest 0.95 for DYS385a/b. Haplotype diversity was 0.9997±0.0004. We compared our data with haplotype data of other Turkish populations and no significant differences were found, except with Ankara population (Φst=0.025, P=0.018). Comparisons were also made with the neighboring populations using analysis of molecular variance of the Y-STR loci genetic structure and our population was nearest to Lenkoran-Azerbaijani (Φst=0.012, P=0.068) and Iranian Ahvaz population (Φst=0.007, P=0.173), followed by Greek (Φst=0.025, P=0.000) and Russian (Φst=0.048, P=0.000) population. Other countries like Portugal, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Israel (Palestinian Authority Area), and Taiwan showed a high genetic distance from our population.

Conclusion: Our study showed that Y-STR polymorphisms were a powerful discrimination tool for routine forensic applications and could be used in genealogical investigations.