MATP polymorphisms in Germans and Japanese: the L374F mutation as a population marker for Caucasoids.

Inference of the population and ancestry to which an individual belongs is important in forensic individualization and personal identification. In this study, five polymorphisms of the membrane-associated transporter protein (MATP) gene were investigated in German and Japanese populations. The L374F mutation was present at an allele frequency as high as 0.96 in the German population, whereas it was completely absent in the Japanese population. This extreme difference in allele frequency suggests that the L374F mutation is valuable as a population and ancestry informative marker for Caucasoids.