ETHNIC-AFFILIATION ESTIMATION BY USE OF POPULATION-SPECIFIC DNA MARKERS

During the past 10 years, DNA analysis has revolutionized the determin ation of identity in a forensic context. Statements about the biologic al identity of two human DNA samples now can be made with complete con fidence. Although DNA markers are very powerful for distinguishing amo ng individuals, most offer little power to distinguish ethnicity or to support any statement about the physical characteristics of an indivi dual. Through a search of the literature and of unpublished data on al lele frequencies we have identified a panel of population-specific gen etic markers that enable robust ethnic-affiliation estimation for majo r U.S. resident populations. In this report, we identify these loci an d present their levels of allele-frequency differential between ethnic ally defined samples, and we demonstrate, using log-likelihood analysi s, that this panel of markers provides significant statistical power f or ethnic-affiliation estimation. In addition to their use in forensic ethnic-affiliation estimation, population-specific genetic markers ar e very useful in both population- and individual-level admixture estim ation and in mapping genes by use of the linkage disequilibrium create d when populations hybridize.