Y chromosome STR allelic and haplotype diversity in five ethnic Tamil populations from Tamil Nadu, India
Received 12 February 2010; received in revised form 10 May 2010; accepted 26 May 2010. published online 12 July 2010.
Abstract
We have analyzed 17 Y chromosomal STR loci in a population sample of 154 unrelated male individuals of the Tamil ethnic group residing in the state of Tamil Nadu, Southern India using AmpFlSTR® Yfiler™ PCR amplification kit. The population samples consist of the following castes: Kongu Gounder (KOG), Nadar Hindu (NAH), Agamudayar (AGA), Parayar (PAR) and other Tamil individuals (MCT) of mixed castes. A total of 152 unique haplotypes were identified among the 154 individuals studied. The haplotype diversity was found to be 0.9935 or higher for all the five groups. The results of population pairwise Fst p values indicate no statistically significant differentiation between the five populations in this study, but the results were highly significant when compared with 12 other global populations (p<0.05). Comparison of populations in this study with other national and global populations using Principal co-ordinate analysis (PCA) using Rst distance matrix indicates a delineation of all the Indian populations from other unrelated populations.
ABSTRACT