GENETIC CHARACTERIZATION OF 12 STRS (INVESTIGATOR® HDPLEX KIT) IN THE ECUADORIAN POPULATION

Abstract Allele frequencies, and genetic data for 12 autosomal Short Tandem Repeat (STRs) loci (D2S1360, D3S1744, D4S2366, D5S2500, D6S474, D7S1517, D8S1132, D10S2325, D12S391, D18S51, D21S2055, and SE33 [ACTBP2]) using the Investigator® HDplex kit (QIAGEN) were obtained from 200 non-related individuals from the Ecuadorian mestizo population. Subjects included 100 men and 100 women, from the 24 provinces of Ecuador. Heterozygosity (Ho), power of discrimination (PD), power of exclusion (PE) and polymorphism information content (PIC) were estimated for the population sample. Locus SE33 had the highest values for power of discrimination (0,9372), polymorphism information content (0,9338), and power of exclusion (0,7852). The most informative STRs for the Ecuadorian population were SE33, D7S1517, D10S2325 and the least informative were D2S1360, D3S1744 and D6S474. The Investigator® HDplex makers have shown to be highly informative in the Ecuadorian population and are suitable as a powerful complementary tool in forensic analysis and complex kinship cases.