GENETIC-VARIATION AT THE SHORT TANDEM REPEAT LOCI HUMVWA, HUMFXIIIB, AND HUMFES FPS IN THE EGYPTIAN AND YEMENIAN POPULATIONS/

The short tandem repeat systems (STRs) HumvWA, HumFXIIIB, and HumFES/F PS were amplified in a tripler polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on bloo d samples from 100 unrelated Yemenians and 100 unrelated Egyptians. Th e samples were analyzed by native horizontal discontinual electrophore sis. No deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were detected. The mean exclusion chances for Egyptians and Yemenians were 0.634 and 0.59 1 (vWA), 0.530 and 0.531 (FXIIIB), and 0.573 and 0.583 (FES); the disc riminating powers were 0.937 and 0.924 (vWA), 0.900 and 0.899 (FXIIIB) , and 0.918 and 0.921 (FES); and the observed heterozygosity rates wer e 0.84 and 0.72 (vWA), 0.73 and 0.83 (FXIIIB), and 0.81 and 0.80 (FES) . No significant differences were found between the two Arab populatio ns, but the differences between both Arab populations and a European p opulation for HumFES and FXIIIB and between the Yemenian sample and a European sample for vWA were significant. No evidence of linkage diseq uilibrium between any of the three STRs tested was found.