Genetic polymorphism analysis and forensic application evaluation of 57 insertion/deletion polymorphisms from Yi ethnic group in Yunnan.

Background: As a new kind of diallelic genetic marker, insertion/deletion (InDel) polymorphisms have recently been used in forensic science. However, there are relatively few studies on the forensic evaluation of InDel genetic polymorphisms from different populations.

Aim: The aim of the present work is to assess the genetic polymorphism and forensic applicability of 57 InDels from the Yi ethnic group and explore the genetic background of this group.

Subjects and methods: A total sample of 122 unrelated individuals of Yi group from the Yunnan province were genotyped by the AGCU indel 60 Kit. Multiplex population genetic analyses on the same 57 InDels were carried out among the Yunnan Yi group and 29 reference populations.

Results: The average allele frequency of these loci in the Yi ethnic group was 0.485. Heterozygosity, polymorphism information content, and the power of discrimination were 0.477, 0.362, and 0.612, respectively. The combined power of discrimination and the combined power of exclusion reached to 0.99999999999999999669 and 0.999962965, respectively. The results showed that 57 InDels polymorphisms have high genetic polymorphisms in the Yi ethnic group.

Conclusions: The 57 InDels could be used for forensic individual identification, paternity testing, and intercontinental population discrimination, with the potential for use in biogeographic ancestry inference.