This article reports on the creation of a DNA database for 2,517 individuals from 38 U.S. populations; the database consists of the 11 Y chromosome short-tandem-repeat (Y-STR) recommended by the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods.
The analyses support the creation of African-American, European-American, Hispanic-American, and Asian-American databases in which samples from various geographic regions within the United States are pooled. The authors recommend that separate databases be developed for various Native-American groups. A population database is necessary in order to estimate the probability that two or more unrelated males share the same Y-STR haplotype. To obtain an accurate estimate of a haplotype's frequency, the database should be sufficiently large to represent the range of ethnic groups within a population. The population samples in the database described in this article derive from 5 ethnic groups--African-Americans (n=651), European-Americans (n=927), Hispanic-Americans (n=479), Asian-Americans (n=62), and 1 dispersed cluster of Native-Americans (n=398)--living in 10 States. An analysis of molecular variance found that a large proportion of the total genetic variance was partitioned among ethnic groups (24.8 percent); whereas, only a small amount (1.5 percent) was found among populations within ethnic groups. Separate analyses of molecular variance within each ethnic group determined that only the Native-American sample contained statistically significant among-population variation. Pair-wise population differentiation tests revealed heterogeneity among European-American and Hispanic-American populations; however, this was due to only a single sample within each group. Descriptions of materials and methods cover the DNA samples, multiplex PCR and DNA typing, and statistical analyses. 2 figures, 3 tables, and 21 references