Genetic analysis of 24 Y-STR loci in the Miao ethnic minority from Yunnan Province, southwestern China.

In the present study, 24 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat (Y-STR) loci were analyzed in 252 unrelated Miao male individuals from Pingbian county, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, southwestern China. The gene diversity of the 24 Y-STR loci in the studied group ranged from 0.2683 (DYS391) to 0.9312 (DYS527a/b). According to haplotypic analysis of the 24 Y-STR loci, 214 different haplotypes were obtained, 186 of which were unique. The overall haplotype diversity and discrimination capacity were calculated to be 0.9983 and 0.8492, respectively. In addition, three different triplications were observed at the DYS527a/b marker, and 1 intermediate allele and six single off-ladder alleles were observed at four markers. We analyzed interpopulation differentiations by making comparisons between the Yunnan Miao ethnic minority and 18 other ethnic groups. The results obtained using pairwise genetic distances, multidimensional scaling plot, and neighbor-joining tree at the same set of 17 Y-filer loci indicated that Yunnan Miao had a closer genetic relationship with Yunnan Han and Hunan Miao individuals. The present results may provide useful information for paternal lineages in forensic cases and can also increase our understanding of the genetic relationship between Miao individuals and other groups.