Population genetic studies on nine tetrameric short tandem repeat loci using fluorescence dye-labeled primers and capillary electrophoresis in the Austrian population.

The short tandem repeats (STR) D3S1358, VWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820 and a locus allowing sex discrimination (amelogenin) can be coamplified by the polymerase chain reaction using a commercially available kit, and subsequently typed using capillary electrophoresis. To establish databases for these loci for Austrian Caucasians, 115 unrelated persons were typed. All loci were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The combined mean paternity exclusion chance (MEC) was 0.999891 and the combined discriminating power (DP) was 3.08 x 10(-11). The allelic distributions showed no differences to those found for other Caucasian populations. Our data differed significantly from an Afro-American population at 5 loci and from a Chinese population at 4 loci. Linkage disequilibrium between any of the coamplified loci was not evident. Thus the combination of multiplex PCR and capillary electrophoresis can save time and yield excellent results for paternity testing and stain analysis.