Population Frequency of 23 Autosomal Str Loci in 500 Nigerians

Abstract

Abstract With a population of about 211 million, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the 7th most populous in the world. Despite this large population, there is paucity in population frequency data useful in forensic investigations and human identification that is specifically relevant to the Nigerian population. The study utilized samples collected from 500 unrelated individuals self-reporting as Nigerians and residing in Lagos State, the most populated and cosmopolitan state in Nigeria, with a population of about 21 million. The frequencies of 23 autosomal STR loci and other forensic parameters were calculated including the gene diversity, polymorphic information content, random match probability, power of discrimination, observed heterozygosity, power of exclusion, typical paternity index and minimum allele frequency. The allele frequencies ranged from 0.001 to 0.493 and the values for PE, PD, Hobs and PIC ranged from 0.3663 to 0.8159, 0.8321 to 0.9862, 0.6580 to 0.9100 and 0.6095 to 0.9143 respectively. Amongst the markers tested, the highest and lowest values for all parameters were observed in SE33 and D13S317 respectively except for the random match probability where the reverse is the case. None of the markers deviated from the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium using a p = 0.05 significance level.