Abstract
Background: Until recently Libya remained the only state of the Maghreb without genetic evolution investigations of the genetic landscape of its population. Apart from some studies of Libyan Jews and Libyan Tuareg, only two recent investigations, based on autosomal ancestry informative SNP and mitochondrial DNA markers, have concerned the general Libyan population.
Aim: The present work is the first to describe STR markers polymorphism in the general Libyan population in order to contribute to the analysis of its genetic diversity for forensic purposes.
Subjects and Methods: Allele frequencies for 15 STR loci (CSF1PO, D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D8S1179, D13S317, D16S539, D18S51, D21S11, FGA, TH01, TPOX, VWA, D2S1338, D19S433) included in the AmpFISTR Identifiler kit were determined in a sample of 99 unrelated individuals originating from the general Libyan population.
Results: No deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed, with the exception of CSF1PO. Genetic parameters of forensic interest such as combined power of discrimination (PD) and combined probability of exclusion (PE) showed values higher than 0.999. Comparisons with data from other North African populations showed significant differences between Libyans and Tunisians, Moroccans and Egyptians.
Conclusions: The high informativity observed for these 15 STRs in a Libyan population demonstrates their usefulness for forensic and parental purposes.