Allele frequency distribution for 15 autosomal STR loci in Afridi Pathan population of Uttar Pradesh, India

Allele frequencies of the 15 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, CSF1PO D19S433, vWA, TPOX, D18S51, D3S1358, THO1, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D5S818 and FGA were determined in Afridi Pathan population of Uttar Pradesh, India. All the 15 STR loci studied were found to be highly polymorphic with respect to observed heterozygosity values. Adherence to the expectations of the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) was confirmed for all the loci with an exception of TPOX and FGA. The allele 12 in CSF1PO was found to be most frequent. The power of discrimination was found to be high ranging from a minimum of 0.858 for the locus CSFIPO to maximum of 0.962 for the locus FGA, thereby facilitating the validation and efficiency of these STR markers in human identification. Population differentiation test between the studied and neighboring populations revealed significant differences at several loci suggesting the endogamous nature of the studied population. To the best of our knowledge, Afridi Pathan population has not been explored genetically for generating forensic data on STR markers. Therefore, STR allele frequency data of this unique population is a valuable contribution to the existing DNA database on Indian populations.