VNTR DNA VARIATION IN THE POPULATION OF THE ISLAND OF HVAR, CROATIA

The aim of this study was to investigate hypervariable DNA polymorphis ms in the Croatian population. Two VNTR loci, D7S22 and D12S11, were s tudied in a sample of 68 inhabitants of the western and eastern region s of the island of Hvar. Binned allele frequencies and heterozygosity were calculated for the two regions and measures of genetic kinship an d genetic distance were computed between the two regions and between e ach of these regions and nine world populations. The relatively large genetic distance between the two regions of the island of Hvar (0.0353 ) may reflect historical immigrations from the mainland and interestin g peculiarities of the populations that arrived from the Balkan penins ula.