Forensic efficiency estimate and phylogenetic analysis for Chinese Kyrgyz ethnic group revealed by a panel of 21 short tandem repeats

Short tandem repeats (STRs) with high level of polymorphisms and convenient detection method play an indispensable role in human population and forensic genetics. Recently, we detected the 21 autosomal non-combined DNA index system (non-CODIS) STR loci in Kyrgyz ethnic group; calculated their forensic parameters; and analyzed its genetic relationships with reference populations from China. In total, 168 alleles were observed at 21 non-CODIS STRs with corresponding allelic frequencies from 0.0020 to 0.4790. No significant deviations at these STRs were observed from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The values of cumulative power of discrimination and probability of exclusion for all the 21 non-CODIS STRs were 0.99999999999999999998835 and 0.9999994002, respectively. Further the analyses of phylogenetic trees, genetic distances and interpopulation differentiations demonstrated that Kyrgyz group had relatively close genetic relationships with Uygur and Kazak groups. These 21 non-CODIS STRs w...