Population structure of Han nationality in Central-Southern China

Forensic Sci Int Genet. 2017 Jul:29:e1-e3. doi: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2017.04.001. Epub 2017 Apr 4.

Abstract

Knowledge of population structure is very important for forensic genetics. However, the population substructure in Central-Southern China Han nationality has still not been fully described. In this study, we investigated the genetic diversity of 15 forensic autosomal STR loci from 6879 individuals in 12 Han populations subdivided by administrative provinces in Central-Southern China. The statistical analysis of genetic variation showed that genetic differentiation among these populations was very small with a Fst value of 0.0009. The Discriminant Analysis of Principal Components (DAPC) showed that there were no obvious population clusters in Central-Southern China Han population. In practice, the population structure effect in Central-Southern China Han population can be negligible in forensic identification and paternity testing.

Keywords: Chinese Han nationality; Population genetics; Population structure; Short tandem repeat (STR).

MeSH terms

  • China
  • DNA Fingerprinting
  • Discriminant Analysis
  • Ethnicity / genetics*
  • Gene Frequency
  • Genetic Variation
  • Genetics, Population*
  • Humans
  • Microsatellite Repeats*
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction