Genetic structure and forensic characterisation of 36 Y-chromosomal STR loci in Hmong-Mien-speaking Miao population

Background Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) are widely used in paternity identification, pedigree investigation, and human population genetic history. Aim To investigate the Y-STR polymorphisms in a typical Miao population, and explore the genetic differentiation between the Miao population and reference groups. Subjects and methods We detected 36 Y-STRs genotyping in 455 unrelated Miao individuals from Guizhou province, and analysed genetic differentiation between the Miao population and 76 reference groups. Results A total of 369 alleles were obtained, and the allele frequencies ranged from 0.0022 to 0.9802. In addition, the haplotype diversity, random match probability, and discrimination capacity values were 0.99997, 0.0022, and 0.9934, respectively. Moreover, the genetic relationships between Guizhou Miao and 76 ethnic populations showed that the population stratification was almost consistent with geographic distribution and language-family. Conclusions The 36 Y-STR loci in this study have good polymorphism distributions in the Guizhou Miao population, and therefore would be a useful tool in forensic identification and male parentage testing and even pedigree investigation.