Announcement of Population Data Allele frequencies of 15 short tandem repeats (STRs) in three Egyptian populations of different ethnic groups

DNA typing of 15 short tandem repeat (STR) loci included in the AmpFlSTR Identifiler TM PCR amplification kit (Applied Biosystems), was carried out in three Egyptian populations of different ethnic groups: the Berbers from the Siwa oasis (in the North-Western Egyptian desert), the Muslims and the Copts from Adaima (Upper Egypt). A total of 297 individuals were typed. After Bonferroni’s correction, no deviations from the Hardy‐Weinberg equilibrium were observed for all samples at the 15 STR loci. All loci are highly polymorphic and population differentiation tests showed that 7,10 and 8outof 15loci have significantdifferences between theBerbers and theMuslim samples, between theBerbers and theCopts, and between the two samples from Adaima, respectively. Comparative analyses between our population data and other geographically related populations gathered from the literature were performed. # 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.