Abstract: The purpose of this work was to investigate the polymorphisms of the 17 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (STR) loci in the Han population in Weinan, Shaanxi Province, and to evaluate their forensic values and genetic relationships with 10 other populations of China. The 17 Y-STR loci in 413 unrelated Weinan Han males in Shaanxi were amplified with the Y-filer system, and the PCR products were analyzed by the 3130 Genetic Analyzer. The allele frequencies and haplotype diversity were calculated for analyzed loci. The Y-STR data of 10 other populations were collected from publications. Cluster analysis and phylogenic trees were applied to show the genetic distance between the populations. A total of 405 different haplotypes were observed in these 413 unrelated individuals, of which 397 were unique. The haplotype diversity value was 0.9999. The gene diversity values (GD) for each locus ranged from 0.4130 (DYS391) to 0.9734 (DYS385a/b). Compared with the 10 populations, the genetic distance between the Weinan Han and Liaoning Manchu population was the smallest (0.00110), while the genetic distance between the Weinan Han and Qinghai Tibet population was the largest (0.22333). The 17 Y-STR loci displayed high genetic polymorphisms in the Weinan Han population, indicating that these 17 loci are useful genetic markers for forensic personal identification and paternity testing, and have the potential for application in forensic medicine and population genetics.

Key words: Y-STR; Haplotype; Genetic polymorphism; Genetic distance; Weinan