Population genetics of 30 insertion/deletion polymorphisms in Han Chinese population from Zhejiang Province

Insertion/deletion (InDels) markers can serve as a useful supporting tool to short tandem repeat (STR) typing systems for human identification. The Qiagen DIPplex Investigator kit, which contains 30 biallelic autosomal InDels and amelogenin, has been developed for forensic use. To estimate the genetic diversity of the 30 markers in Han Chinese individuals living in Zhejiang and to further evaluate their applicability in forensic science, 246 unrelated Han Chinese from Zhejiang were genotyped at these loci. No significant departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed at these loci in these participants. The combined power of discrimination was over 0.99999999 and the combined probability of exclusion was over 0.9901. Results demonstrated that the 30 InDel markers could be used as a supporting tool for the human identification of specific Han Chinese individuals from Zhejiang. The genetic differences and phylogenetic relationships among Han Chinese from Zhejiang, Han Chinese from five other areas, nine minority ethnic groups, as well as two other East Asian populations were also investigated. Two InDel markers, HLD39 and HLD40, showed significant allele-frequency differences between Han Chinese from Zhejiang and ethnic minorities. Further analysis can be used to evaluate their role in forensic science.