Genetic polymorphisms and phylogenetic analysis of the Gujarat population via 17 Y chromosomal STR systems

Analysis of Y‑STRs provides valuable information in forensic casework as well as in population studies. In order to observe the genetic polymorphism of the Gujarat population, 150 unrelated male individuals were typed using 17 Y‑STR markers (DYS456, DYS389I, DYS390, DYS389II, DYS458, DYS19, DYS385a/b, DYS393, DYS391, DYS439, DYS635, DYS392, Y‑GATA-H4, DYS437, DYS438, and DYS448). A total of 120 distinct alleles were reported with an allelic frequency ranging from 0.007 to 0.533. The studied population showed higher value of discrimination capacity (0.9726) and haplotype diversity (0.9998). A total of 146 haplotypes were observed among which 142 haplotypes were unique. The genetic diversity for 17 Y-STRs ranged from 0.620 (DYS391) to 0.829 (DYS385b). The locus DYS385b showed the highest polymorphism (0.809). Using the same 17 Y-STR loci, genetic relationship and the corresponding p-value were calculated and compared with the other available Indian populations. In addition, a phylogenetic tree was also constructed and similar results were evidenced using multidimensional scaling (MDS) plot. Overall, these findings are highly polymorphic in the studied population and can also enrich the ethnic genetic information of Gujaratis.