Evaluation of 13 rapidly mutating Y-STRs in endogamous Punjabi and Sindhi ethnic groups from Pakistan

Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) are commonly used to study population histories, discover ancestral relationships, and identify males for criminal justice purposes. Y-STRs being largely in forensic use have low haplotype diversity in some populations and cannot discriminate between paternal male relatives. Rapidly mutating Y-STRs (RM Y-STRs) were breakthrough and have been paid much attention. A set of 13 rapidly mutating (RM) Y-STRs (DYF387S1, DYF399S1, DYF403S1a/b1/b2, DYF404S1, DYS449, DYS518, DYS526I/II, DYS547, DYS570, DYS576, DYS612, DYS626, and DYS627) typically reveals higher haplotype diversities than the commercially available Y-STR sets and allows differentiating male relatives for which commercial Y-STR sets are usually not informative. Here, we amplified the 13 RM Y-STRs in 168 (37 Sindhi and 131 Punjabi) individuals from Pakistani population, which is characterized by high rates of endogamy. The haplotype diversity and discrimination capacity were 1. Allelic frequencies ranged from 0.0060 to 0.5060, while gene diversity ranged from 0.6759 (DYS526a) to 0.9937 (DYF399S1). A total 319 different alleles were observed. Results of our study showed that RM Y-STRs provided substantially stronger discriminatory power in Pakistani populations.