Survey of the Korean population for 9 short tandem repeat loci

The short tandem repeats with repeat units ranging from two to several nucleotides became a powerful tool in the field of forensic identification and paternity determination as well as for research in human gene mapping. Allele and genotype frequencies for 9 short tandem repeats including HUMCSF1PO, HUMTH01, HUMPLA2A1, HUMF13A01, HUMCYAR04, HUMLIPOL, HUMHPRTB, HUMCD4, and HUMFABP were determined using PCR and subsequent analysis of the PCR products by denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by silver-staining. DNA samples were obtained from about 100 Korean people and amplified in a thermocycler adopting glass capillaries rather than traditional tubes. We found that the bovine serum albumin was an essential additive for the capillary PCR, presumably to coat the inner surface of the capillary which may adsorb Taq DNA polymerase. The capillary thermocycler was very effective in reducing the cycling time such that most of the amplification reactions could be finished within 30 min albeit the PCR product was less than that for the tube systems. All loci except HUMHPRTB met the Hardy-Weinberg expectations according to the exact test. The cumulative power of discrimination (PD) was 0.9999998 and the power of exclusion (POE) for the paternity test was a little low, being 0.9873989.