THE SCREENING OF 13 SHORT TANDEM REPEAT LOCI IN THE CHINESE POPULATION

Population studies of 13 short tandem repeat (STR) loci were carried o ut on Chinese in Taiwan. The STR loci included KUMF13B, HUMF13A01, HUM FES/FPS, HUMFABP, HUMPLA2A1, HUMTPOX, HUMTH01, HUMVWFA31/A, HUMCSF1PO, HUMLPL, HUMGPP3A09, HUMCYAR04 and HUMCD4. DNA samples from 100 unrela ted individuals were screened. The STR allele patterns were detected b y the fluorescence detector of an automated DNA sequencer. Two PCR amp lifications were performed for each STR locus in this study. The first PCR amplification strategy used 26 base pairs of the T7 sequence exte nsion in the 5' end of the forward primer of each STR locus. The secon d PCR amplification used a dye-labeled T7 primer instead of the forwar d primer in the first PCR amplification, and the first PCR products as template to produce fluorescent dye-labeled PCR products. PCR product s of different STR loci with overlapping allele sizes could be detecte d in the same lane of the polyacrylamide gel on an automated DNA seque ncer using different colored dye-labeled T7 primers. There was no need to directly conjugate the fluorescent dye to individual STR primers. The PCR products were obtained using 2 ng of template DNA in 25 mu l o f PCR reaction mixture. No deviations from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibr ium were observed for the 13 STR loci. The distributions of these STR alleles were different from those of Caucasians or Blacks. The probabi lity of matching from the combination of the 13 STR loci was 5.9 x 10( -10) for our Chinese population. However, HUMF13B, HUMLPL and HUMCD4 l oci were not as highly polymorphic as observed in other populations. ( C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.