AN INVESTIGATION OF THE HUMVWA31A LOCUS IN BRITISH CAUCASIANS

A number of short tandem repeat (STR) loci are currently being examine d for their usefulness as markers of identity; HUMVWA31A is one such l ocus. We used a high-sieving agarose technique to type 200 British Cau casians for this locus. Comparison of the resultant allele frequencies with other published databases showed that their distributions were s imilar. Observed heterozygosity was similar to that reported in other population studies but significantly lower than expected. A goodness o f fit analysis of observed and expected genotypes was highly significa nt, suggesting a deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, although r eports from other populations appeared not to show such differences. T he possibility that mistyping had led to an erroneous statistic was in vestigated by detailed examination of samples within our own laborator y and in two other laboratories, involving verification of the agarose typing by both automated fluorescent detection techniques, and sequen cing, Other reported deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in STR systems are discussed.