Abstract
As the origin of modern humanity, African populations show high genetic diversity and are attracting increasing academic attention. However, populations living in West Africa have so far received less study and exploration. In this study, we analyze 30 insertion/deletion (InDel) loci of 516 samples from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to evaluate the forensic properties and reveal the genetic structure in Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. No significant linkage disequilibrium (LD) between 30 InDels was observed after the Bonferroni correction. The random match probability (RMP), the combined power of exclusion for duos (CPE duos), and the combined power of exclusion for trios (CPE trios) were 6.823 × 10−11, 0.9168, and 0.9731, respectively. Null alleles and off-ladder alleles were observed, suggesting that we should be cautious when using this kit for forensic caseworks in African populations. In the population comparison study, we found that the Freetown population is genetically closer to geographically distinct West Africans and has a closer genetic relationship with the Bantu-speaking populations than other African populations.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Henn BM, Gignoux CR, Jobin M, Granka JM, Macpherson JM, Kidd JM, Rodriguez-Botigue L, Ramachandran S, Hon L, Brisbin A, Lin AA, Underhill PA, Comas D, Kidd KK, Norman PJ, Parham P, Bustamante CD, Mountain JL, Feldman MW (2011) Hunter-gatherer genomic diversity suggests a southern African origin for modern humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108(13):5154–5162. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1017511108
Schlebusch CM, Malmstrom H, Gunther T, Sjodin P, Coutinho A, Edlund H, Munters AR, Vicente M, Steyn M, Soodyall H, Lombard M, Jakobsson M (2017) Southern African ancient genomes estimate modern human divergence to 350,000 to 260,000 years ago. Science 358(6363):652–655. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao6266
Banton M (2018) West African city a study of tribal life in Freetown. Routledge
Weber JL, David D, Heil J, Fan Y, Zhao C, Marth G (2002) Human diallelic insertion/deletion polymorphisms. Am J Hum Genet 71(4):854–862. https://doi.org/10.1086/342727
Xie T, Guo Y, Chen L, Fang Y, Tai Y, Zhou Y, Qiu P, Zhu B (2018) A set of autosomal multiple InDel markers for forensic application and population genetic analysis in the Chinese Xinjiang Hui group. Forensic Sci Int Genet 35:1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2018.03.007
LaRue BL, Ge J, King JL, Budowle B (2012) A validation study of the Qiagen Investigator DIPplex® kit; an INDEL-based assay for human identification. Int J Legal Med 126(4):533–540. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-012-0667-9
He G, Adnan A, Rakha A, Yeh HY, Wang M, Zou X, Guo J, Rehman M, Fawad A, Chen P, Wang CC (2019) A comprehensive exploration of the genetic legacy and forensic features of Afghanistan and Pakistan Mongolian-descent Hazara. Forensic Sci Int Genet 42:e1–e12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2019.06.018
Walsh PS, Metzger DA, Higuchi R (1991) Chelex-100 as a medium for simple extraction of DNA for Pcr-based typing from forensic material. Biotechniques 10(4):506–513
Bodner M, Bastisch I, Butler JM, Fimmers R, Gill P, Gusmao L, Morling N, Phillips C, Prinz M, Schneider PM, Parson W (2016) Recommendations of the DNA Commission of the International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG) on quality control of autosomal Short Tandem Repeat allele frequency databasing (STRidER). Forensic Sci Int Genet 24:97–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2016.06.008
Carracedo A, Butler JM, Gusmao L, Linacre A, Parson W, Roewer L, Schneider PM (2013) New guidelines for the publication of genetic population data. Forensic Sci Int Genet 7(2):217–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2013.01.001
Gusmao L, Butler JM, Linacre A, Parson W, Roewer L, Schneider PM, Carracedo A (2017) Revised guidelines for the publication of genetic population data. Forensic Sci Int Genet 30:160–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2017.06.007
Almheiri M, Sanqoor S, Haidar M, Nazir M, Vijayan R (2019) Study of insertion-deletion polymorphisms (indels) in the UAE population. Forensic Sci Int Genet Suppl Ser. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigss.2019.10.090
Jacobs G (2015) Evaluation of insertion-deletion polymorphisms with the kit Qiagen Investigator® DIPplex for forensic application in South Africa
Funding
This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, no. 81871533), Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Central South University (229795), and Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Central South University (220494).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
The study was approved by the Grey Bush Community Health Center (2019-056), and written informed consent was obtained from each participant.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, H., Marah, F.A., Moseray, M. et al. Forensic parameters and genetic structure analysis of 30 autosomal InDels of the population in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Int J Legal Med 135, 767–769 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02417-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02417-7