Population study of HUMTH01, HUMVWA31/A, HUMF13A1, and HUMFES/FPS systems in Azores

The tetrameric short tandem repeat polymorphisms HUMTH01, HUMVWA31/A, HUMF1 3A1, and HUMFES/FPS were studied in blood stains obtained from a population of unrelated individuals from the Azores Archipelago (Portugal). Gene freq uencies were determined and no deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibriu m was found. However, the allelic independence test between loci showed Lin kage disequilibrium between HUMVWA31/A and HUMFES/FPS. A combined discrimin ation power and chance of exclusion of, respectively, 0.9999 and 0.9534, re veal the high forensic interest of the four systems. No differences with ot her caucasoid populations were found, but comparison with some asiatic, esk imo, and amerindian populations showed significant statistical differences.