Genetic polymorphisms of Y-chromosome short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) in a male population from Golestan province, Iran

Short Tandem Repeats (STRs), which are located out of pseudo-autosomal parts of the human Y chromosome and passed-down from fathers to the male offspring in a non-recombinant form, are regarded as appropriate markers for forensic purposes and evolutionary investigations. Few studies concerned the genotyping of Y chromosome short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) among the ethnic groups of the north of Iran, especially the province of Golestan which is a multiethnic region of Iran. Thus, in this work we investigated the frequency of Y-STR haplotypes among the male population from Golestan province, to elucidate their identity and kinship patterns. A total number of 106 unrelated male individuals participated in this study. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples and the multiplex polymerase chain reaction was employed to amplify DNA fragments. Genotyping was performed using capillary electrophoresis and, finally, allele polymorphisms, haplotype diversity (HD) and haplotype discrimination capacity (DC) were determined using GenAlEXv6.5 and Arlequin v5.3.2 software and compared to other regions of Iran. A total number of 87 unique haplotypes were determined. The highest and least allelic polymorphism was observed for the DYS385b and DYS391 loci, respectively. HD and DC were 0.9962 and 0.8207, respectively. In the case of locus with the least allelic variation, we didn't observe any difference between the Gilan and Golestan but there was a difference between the Golestan and Mazandaran provinces. Our results indicated the efficiency of Y-STRs to be used as genetic markers for forensic medicine, and also the evolutionary comparison of different ethnic groups of Golestan, Iran. Also, a low genetic distance between the population of Golestan with other northern provinces was noticed.