VNTR DNA variation in the population of the island of Hvar, Croatia.

The aim of this study was to investigate hypervariable DNA polymorphisms in the Croatian population. Two VNTR loci, D7S22 and D12S11, were studied in a sample of 68 inhabitants of the western and eastern regions of the island of Hvar. Binned allele frequencies and heterozygosity were calculated for the two regions and measures of genetic kinship and genetic distance were computed between the two regions and between each of these regions and nine world populations. The relatively large genetic distance between the two regions of the island of Hvar (0.0353) may reflect historical immigrations from the mainland and interesting peculiarities of the populations that arrived from the Balkan peninsula.