Journal of Forensic Research

Y Chromosomal SNP Analysis Using the Minisequencing Strategy in a Moroccan Population Samples

Abstract

Rachid Aboukhalid, Mehdi Bouabdellah, Ronald Lai, Nicholas Bradford, Hicham EL Ossmani, Jalal Talbi, Kaoutar Bentayebi, Driss Squalli, Daniele Podini and Saaid Amzazi

The Y chromosome contains the largest non-recombining portion in the human genome. Y-Binary polymorphisms, also known as a single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), are a series of biallelic polymorphisms occurring on the non-recombining region of the Y chromosome (NRY), which represent a precious tool for human evolutionary studies and, potentially, for forensic applications. Low mutation rate, paternal inheritance, and absence of recombination make Y-SNPs particularly suitable for the identification of stable paternal lineages and the reconstruction of an ancestral state from which to explore the evolution of humans. Also, these markers would allow inference of the paternal ancestry of unknown samples which could be useful in forensic applications. In the present study we analyzed 22 biallelic Y-SNPs in 159 males belonging to three ethnic groups (Arab n = 42, Berber n = 67 and Sahrawi n = 50) from Morocco. A total of 10 different haplogroups were identified in this sample representative of Moroccan population. The most common Y chromosome haplogroups is E1b1b1, E1b1b1b and J1 with frequencies of 56%, 49% and 10% respectively.