Population genetic studies on nine tetrameric short tandem repeat loci using fluorescence dye-labeled primers and capillary electrophoresis in the Austrian population

The short tandem repeats (STR) D3S1358, VWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820 and a locus allowing sex discrimination (amelogenin ) can be coamplified by the polymerase chain reaction using a commercially available kit, and subsequently typed using capillary electrophoresis. To e stablish databases for these loci for Austrian Caucasians, 115 unrelated pe rsons were typed. All loci were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The: combine d mean paternity exclusion chance (MEC) was 0.999891 and the combined discr iminating power (DP) was 3.08 x 10(-11). The allelic distributions showed n o differences to those found for other Caucasian populations. Our data diff ered significantly from an Afro-American population at 5 loci and from a Ch inese population at 4 loci. Linkage disequilibrium between any of the coamp lified loci was not evident. Thus the combination of multiplex PCR and capi llary electrophoresis can save time and yield excellent results for paterni ty testing and stain analysis.