Yfiler Plus | Ricerc@Sapienza

Rapidly mutating Y-STRs in rapidly expanding populations: discrimination power of the Yfiler Plus multiplex in northern Africa.

The male-specific northern African genetic pool is characterised by a high frequency
of the E-M81 haplogroup, which expanded in very recent times (2-3 kiloyears ago).
As a consequence of their recent coalescence, E-M81 chromosomes often cannot be
completely distinguished on the basis of their Y-STR profiles, unless rapidly-mutating
Y-STRs (RM Y-STRs) are analysed. In this study, we used the Yfiler® Plus kit, which includes

Ethnic fragmentation and degree of urbanization strongly affect the discrimination power of Y-STR haplotypes in central Sahel

Y chromosome short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) are commonly used to identify male lineages for investigative and judicial purposes and could represent the only source of male-specific genetic information from unbalanced female-male mixtures. The Yfiler Plus multiplex, which includes twenty conventional and seven rapidly-mutating Y-STRs, represents the most discriminating patrilineal system commercially available to date.