Analysis of 6 short tandem repeat loci in Navarre (northern Spain)

A genetic study was performed on a sample of 146 autochthonous individuals from the province of Navarre (northern Spain) to test for 6 STR systems: CSF1PO, TPOX, TH01, F13A1, FES/FPS, and VWA31/A. The Navarre population has a series of allele frequencies that are at the extreme end of the European range of variation and that are in most cases similar to those found in the Basque population of the provinces of Alava, Biscay, and Guipuzcoa. This similarity is corroborated by correspondence analysis, in which the population of Navarre is at one end of the first axis with the Basque sample close to it and the remaining European populations far removed. In tree-type representations the Navarre population is grouped with the Basque series at 1 end. Even so, the comparison of allele frequency distributions by the chi-square heterogeneity test indicates that these 2 groups are statistically different. Our results together with the cultural relationship that exists between all the Basque-speaking provinces and the genetic heterogeneity described in earlier studies between the Basque provinces of Alava, Biscay, and Guipuzcoa (Aguirre et al. 1989; Manzano, Orue et al. 1996; Manzano, Aguirre et al. 1996) lead us to believe that the Navarre population lies within the heterogeneous Basque genetic map.