FORENSIC PARAMETERS AND GENETIC STRUCTURE BASED ON Y-CHROMOSOME SHORT TANDEM REPEATS IN LESOTHO POPULATIONS

ABSTRACT Lesotho is a landlocked country with approximately 2.2 million inhabitants. Over 97% of the population is represented by the Southern Sotho people (Sotho-Tswana group), followed by a number of minorities mostly from the Nguni language groups. In this study we investigated the patterns of genetic variation and report genetic diversity, forensic parameters and novel allele variations in 938 unrelated Bantu males. Population pairwise comparisons identified high affinities between the Xhosa and the Vundle, while the largest genetic distance was observed between the Vundle and the Baphuthi ethnic groups (Rst = 0.14878). A high level of genetic differentiation between populations was observed considering culture and language affiliations as opposed to geographic distance.