Insights Into Forensic Features and Genetic Structures of Guangdong Maoming Han Based on 27 Y-STRs

Abstract

Maoming is located in the southwest region of Guangdong Province and is the cradle of Gaoliang culture, which is the representative branch of Lingnan cultures. Historical records showed that the amalgamations between Gaoliang aborigines and distinct ethnic minorities had some influences on the shaping of Gaoliang culture, especially for the local Tai-kadai language-speaking Baiyue and Han Chinese from Central China. However, there is still no exact genetic evidence for the influences on the genetic pool of Maoming Han, and the genetic relationships between Maoming Han and other Chinese populations are still unclear. Hence, in order to get a better understanding of the paternal genetic structures and characterize the forensic features of 27 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) in Han Chinese from Guangdong Maoming, we firstly applied the AmpFLSTR® Yfiler® Plus PCR Amplification Kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, United States) to genotype the haplotypes in 431 Han males residing in Maoming. A total of 263 different alleles were determined across all 27 Y-STRs with the corresponding allelic frequencies from 0.0004 to 0.7401, and the range of genetic diversity (GD) was 0.4027 (DYS391) to 0.9596 (DYS385a/b). In the first batch of 27 Yfiler data in Maoming Han, 417 distinct haplotypes were discovered, and nine off-ladder alleles were identified at six Y-STRs; in addition, no copy number variant or null allele was detected. The overall haplotype diversity (HD) and discrimination capacity (DC) of 27 Yfiler were 0.9997 and 0.9675, respectively, which demonstrated that the 6-dye and 27-plex system has sufficient system effectiveness for forensic applications in Maoming Han. What is more, the phylogenetic analyses indicated that Maoming Han, which is a Southern Han Chinese population, has a close relationship with Meizhou Kejia, which uncovered that the role of the gene flows from surrounding Han populations in shaping the genetic pool of Maoming Han cannot be ignored. From the perspectives of genetics, linguistics, and geographies, the genetic structures of Han populations correspond to the patterns of the geographical-scale spatial distributions and the relationships of language families. Nevertheless, no exact genetic evidence supports the intimate relationships between Maoming Han and Tai-Kadai language-speaking populations and Han populations of Central Plains in the present study.

Systematic Evaluation of a Novel 6-dye Direct and Multiplex PCR-CE-Based InDel Typing System for Forensic Purposes

“…In general, from the perspective of population genetic analyses, compared with paternal Y-STR genetic markers ( Fan et al, 2018a ; Fan et al, 2018c ; Liu et al, 2020b ; Ding et al, 2020 ; Fan et al, 2021b ; Fan et al, 2021c ; Luo et al, 2021 ), the novel 6-dye direct and multiplex PCR-CE-based typing system also possessed the ability to differentiate intercontinental populations to a certain extent. The UAIS enabled to make the relatively clear distinctions among populations from five intercontinental ancestries, and the Hainan Li group had the close genetic relationships with EAS populations.…”

Microhaplotype and Y-SNP/STR (MY): A novel MPS-based system for genotype pattern recognition in two-person DNA mixtures

“…The mean values and standard deviations (SDs) of the DoC, N-1 stutter ratio for Y-STRs, and ACR values for MHs were calculated by SAS ® 9.4 software (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). The other relevant forensic parameters were determined as described in our previous studies [88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99]. A e was calculated using the formula proposed by Kidd et al [100], A e = 1 ∑…”

Developmental Validation of a Rapidly Mutating Y-STR Panel Labeled by Six Fluoresceins for Forensic Research

“…In combination, STRs found on the Y chromosome can provide male identification, pedigree searching, and paternity analysis, and thus, commercial Y-STR kits have been developed. For example, the Yfiler plus kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, United States) can simultaneously amplify 27 Y-STRs, which together provide relatively high discrimination capacity (DC) ( Fan et al, 2021a ); the Microreader Y Prime Plus ID panel (Microread Genetics, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China) comprising a Y chromosome insertion/deletion variant and 37 Y-STRs was developed for the construction of the Chinese DNA database ( Zhao et al, 2021 ). In some populations, existing Y-STRs are not variable enough to differentiate closely related males, or even distantly related males, because most Y-STR loci in the available kits have relatively low mutation rates and therefore exhibit relatively few alleles.…”