Allele frequency distribution at 15 autosomal STR loci in Panggi, Komkar and Padam sub tribes of Adi, a Tibeto-Burman speaking population of Arunachal Pradesh, India.

Fifteen autosomal STR loci were analyzed in 223 healthy individuals belonging to three remote, isolated Tibeto-Burman speaking sub tribes namely, Panggi, Komkar and Padam of Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, India. The analyzed markers exhibited a high degree of polymorphism in the studied populations. Statistical parameters of forensic interest; observed heterozygosity, probability of homozygosity, exact test, likelihood ratio test, power of discrimination, power of exclusion, match probability and typical paternity index were determined for all loci. The average heterozygosity values were found to be low in the three populations (Panggi: 0.7747; Komkar: 0.7742 and Padam: 0.7663). The combined power of discrimination and power of exclusion were 0.9999 in the studied populations thereby revealing the high forensic significance of the chosen markers. The study indicates the utility of the tested microsatellite markers in forensic human identification, paternity testing and human population genetic studies.