Abstract.
Eight human short tandem repeat polymorphisms (STRs) also known as microsatellites—DYS19, DYS388, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS389I, and DYS389II, mapping in the Y chromosome—were analyzed in two Iberian samples (Basques and Catalans). Allele frequency distributions showed significant differences only for DYS392. Fst and gene diversity index (D) were estimated for the Y STRs. The values obtained are comparable to those of autosomal STR if corrections for the smaller effective population size on the Y chromosome are taken into account. This suggests that Y-chromosome microsatellites might be as useful as their autosomal counterparts to both human population genetics and forensics. Our results also reinforce the hypothesis that selective sweeps in the Y chromosome in recent times are unlikely. Haplotypes combining five of the loci were constructed for 71 individuals, showing 29 different haplotypes. A haplotype tree was constructed, from which an estimate of 7,000 to 60,000 years for the age of the Y-chromosome variation in Iberia was derived, in accordance with previous estimates obtained with mtDNA sequences and nuclear markers.
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Received: 3 January 1997 / Accepted: 25 April 1997
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Pérez-Lezaun, A., Calafell, F., Seielstad, M. et al. Population Genetics of Y-Chromosome Short Tandem Repeats in Humans. J Mol Evol 45, 265–270 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00006229
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00006229