Journal of Forensic Research

Allele Frequency Database for 21 Short Tandem Repeats in the Ugandan Population

Abstract

Jane Nabwowe*, Musa Kirya, Dianah Katiti, Tarsisius Byamugisha, Immaculate Natukwasa, Precious Nyangoma, Alex Nkusaule, Charles Kigozi, Francis Mbolwa, Amon Serunkuma, Agnes Namatovu and Kepher Kuchana Kateu

Genetic studies on the Ugandan population are very limited and little has been done to characterize its population structure. Here, we used 21 autosomal STRs included in the GlobalFilerTMAmplification Kit to amplify DNA from 1301 non-related adult individuals randomly selected from the four geographical regions of the country, namely Eastern, Western, Central and Northern region. The DNA samples were extracted using PrepFiler Express extraction protocol, amplified using the GlobalFilerTMPCR amplification kit and separated using capillary electrophoresis on the 3500xL Genetic Analyzer. A total of 342 alleles were observed ranging from 4 to 43.2 repeat units. Genotype distribution agreed with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p > 0.05) except at D3S1358 loci that did not show significant departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium after Bonferroni correlation. Tri-allelic patterns were observed at TPOX and D7S820 and the most polymorphic loci with 49 and 30 different alleles were SE33 and FGA loci respectively. The most discriminating loci were SE33 (0.9900) and D2S133 (0.9788) while heterozygosity ranged from 0.700 for D13S317 to 0.9131 for SE33 in the Ugandan population. The Combined Power of Exclusion (CPE), Combined Match Probability (CMP), Combined Power of Discrimination (CPD) and Combined Typical Paternity Index were 0.999980519, 1 in 6.76703 × 1027, 1 and 695669937.8 respectively. Results from the study showed that when combined, the 21 Short tandem repeat loci showed high gene diversity since they were highly informative, polymorphic and discriminative providing a Ugandan STR population dataset resourceful in paternity and forensic testing.