An X-STR meiosis study in Kurds and Germans: allele frequencies and mutation rates

X-linked short tandem repeats (X-STRs) play an important supplementary role in the field of forensic genetics, especially in deficiency cases. This paper presents population genetic data for the microsatellite markers DXS8378, DXS6800, DXS101, HPRTB, and DXS8377 in a German and a Kurdish population sample. Buccal swabs were obtained from 217 unrelated healthy German individuals (107 women and 110 men) from the area of Münster and 208 unrelated Kurdish individuals (103 women and 105 men), immigrants mainly from Northern Iraq. Additionally, more than 1,200 meiotic transfers (419 paternal and 819 maternal meioses) were investigated in the systems DXS6800, DXS101, and DXS8377. Five mutations were found in the system DXS8377. With the power of discrimination in females [PD(F)] ranging from 0.81 (DXS8378 in Kurds) to 0.99 (DXS8377 in Germans), the investigated X-STRs systems turned out to be highly informative in the two populations.