Genetic characterisation of 13 rapidly mutating Y-STR loci in 100 father and son pairs from South and East Turkey

<b>Background:</b> Rapidly mutating (RM) Y-STRs recently emerged as a useful genotyping tool that can counteract problems normally associated with traditional Y-STRs. For instance, RM Y-STRs have the potential to differentiate Y-chromosomes from both close and distant paternal relatives. <b>Aim:</b> Characterisation of 13 RM Y-STR loci in a new sample pool from Turkey in terms of population genetic data and mutation rates. <b>Subjects and methods:</b> One hundred father–son pairs from South and East Turkey were genotyped. Based on the 99 father haplotypes unique to the current study, statistical parameters of forensic interest were computed. Nei’s <i>D_A</i> distances among 112 global population datasets were estimated and visualised by phylogenetic and multidimensional scaling (MDS) analyses. <b>Results:</b> Fifteen father–son pairs were found to differ at a single locus and four at two loci, resulting in a differentiation rate of 19%. Mutations were observed at 10 out of 13 loci, with rates ranging from 1 × 10⁻² to 6 × 10⁻². <b>Conclusion:</b> Mutation rates and differentiation rates between the father–son pairs were similar to those from the literature. In contrast to previous work, novel phylogenetic tree construction results based on Nei’s <i>D_A</i> distances suggested a close correlation between the geographic and genetic distances observed, except for known cases of past mass migration events.