Forensic Science International: Genetics 4 (2010) e149–e150
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Forensic Science International: Genetics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fsig
Letter to the Editor
Genetic polymorphisms of 15 AmpFlSTR Identifiler loci in a
Serbian population
Keywords:
STRs
AmpFlSTR Identifiler
Allele frequencies
Population data
Serbians
The highly polymorphic short tandem repeat (STR) loci in the
human genome are widely used for forensic and paternity testing
as well as for population genetic studies. During the last two
decades, new states were formed in the territory of former
Yugoslavia. Analyses of STR loci polymorphism for the Serbian
population published so far included mixed samples of Serbians
and ethnically close but different populations from the other
countries [1–3]. Here we have collected samples from a wide-
spread ethnic Serbian population inhabiting the newly formed
Republic of Serbia and analyzed them by 15 AmpFlSTR Identifiler
loci (D3S1358, TH01, D21S11, D18S51, D2S1338, D5S818,
D13S317, D7S820, D16S539, CSF1PO, D19S433, vWA, D8S1179,
TPOX, FGA). The data obtained were compared with ethnically
close neighboring nations in order to resolve confused earlier
comparisons based on samples that included different nations
living in the country of research [4–8].
A total of 356 unrelated, autochthonous, healthy individuals
of both sexes, born in Serbia, were included in the analysis. The
participants were voluntary blood donors, who gave their
informed consent, and a group of bar coded subjects legally
involved in forensic testing. Genomic DNA was extracted from
blood spots and buccal swabs and multiplex PCR amplification
was performed on approximately 1 ng of genomic DNA by the
AmpFlSTR Identifiler PCR amplification kit (Applied Biosystems,
Foster City, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer’s instruc-
tions [9]. Electrophoresis, detection of PCR products and
genotyping were carried out on an ABI PRISM 3130 genetic
analyzer (Applied Biosystems) using ABI PRISM 3130 Data
Collection Software v3.0 and GeneMapper ID Software v3.2
(Applied Biosystems). Control DNA and allelic ladders were
provided by the manufacturer of the kit and GEDNAP proficiency
testing.
Genotypes for all tested individuals are presented in Supple-
mentary Table 1. Allele frequencies and all forensic parameters are
shown in Supplementary Table 2 and data are available on http://
www.ibiss.bg.ac.rs/genetika/str-serbia.html. Forensic parameters
were calculated using the PowerStats software package [10]. The
agreement with Hardy–Weinberg expectations (HWE) based on
the number of observed and expected genotypes was calculated
using PowerMarker software v3.25 [11].
1872-4973/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2009.08.012
The agreement with HWE, tested by the exact test after
applying Bonferroni’s correction, was confirmed for all studied loci
with the exception of D21S11 (p < 0.001). The combined PD and
the combined PE for the 15 studied loci were 4.67  10 18 and
0.99999837, respectively. The most informative markers were
D2S1338, D18S51, FGA and D21S11.
We compared data from this Serbian population with five
neighboring and ethnically close populations from the Balkan
Peninsula—Bosnian [4], Croatian [5], Macedonian [6], Montenegrin
[7] and Slovenian [8]. Interpopulation comparisons were made by
the locus-by-locus AMOVA test implemented in the Arlequin v3.01
package [12] and the results are presented in Supplementary Table
3. After applying Bonferroni’s correction, population differentia-
tion tests showed highly significant differences from the Mon-
tenegrin population at three loci: D21S11, D18S51 and D19S433
(p < 0.001, Supplementary Table 3).
Conclusion: This is the first study of allele frequencies for STR
loci in a representative sample of Serbians. Significant genetic
differences from the Montenegrin population might be due to the
small size and traditional customs of that population, resulting in
greater genetic isolation than expected for ethnically close nations.
This finding confirms the high sensitivity of 15 AmpFlSTR
Identifiler loci in population genetic studies and genetic micro-
differentiation between different populations [7].
Acknowledgment
This study was supported by the Serbian Ministry of Science
and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia, (Project No.
143011).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2009.08.012.
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fax: +381 11 3622 900
E-mail address: tamiva71@yahoo.com
Tamara Novković* (T. Novković)
Bojana Panić
Ana Banjac 22 July 2009
Tanja Kovač Ðekić
Ivana Tomišić-Kosić
Anpelka Vučetić-Dragović
Forensic DNA Laboratory, National Crime-Technical Centre, Ministry
of the Interior, Kneza Miloša 101, 11 000 Belgrade, Serbia