Hierarchical analysis of 30 Y-chromosome SNPs in European populations

Analysis of Y-chromosome haplogroups defined by binary polymorphisms, has became a standard approach for studying the origin of modern human populations and for measuring the variability between them. Furthermore, the simplicity and population specificity of binary polymorphisms allows inferences to be drawn about the population origin of any male sample of interest for forensic purposes. From the 245 binary polymorphisms that can be analysed by PCR described in the Y Chromosome Consortium tree, we have selected 30 markers. The set of 30 has been grouped into 4 multiplexes in order to determine the most frequent haplogroups in Europe, using only 1 or 2 multiplexes. In this way, we avoid typing unnecessary SNPs to define the final haplogroup saving effort and cost, since we only need to type 9 SNPs in the best case and in the worst case, no more than 17 SNPs to define the haplogroup. The selected method for allele discrimination was a single base extension reaction using the SNaPshot multiplex kit. A total of 292 samples from 8 different districts of Galicia (northwest Spain) were analysed with this strategy. No significant differences were detected among the different districts, except for the population from Marina Lucense, which showed a distant haplogroup frequency but not higher Phi(st) values.