Genetic Variations at 15 Forensically Relevant Microsatellite Loci (STRs) in the Three Major Ethno‐Linguistic Population Groups in Nigeria

This study is to identify genetic markers that will show distinct genetic variability among the three major ethno‐linguistic population groups in Nigeria that can help establish ethnic origin of forensic evidential materials. Samples from 315 unrelated individuals representing the three populations; ‘Hausa’, ‘Ibo’ and ‘Yoruba’ were analyzed using 15 Microsatellite loci (STRs) from Applied Biosystems. Analyses of inter‐ and intra‐population diversity were carried out using average heterozygosity, allele range (base pair), most frequent allele per a locus, Fixation index (Fst), Forensic and Paternity parameters. Multi‐locus genotype frequencies were utilized for testing conformity with Hardy‐Weinberg equilibrium (HW). 7 loci was found to conform to Hardy Weinberg equilibrium after X 2 analysis. However, Bonferoni corrections show all loci to be in HW equilibrium, equally, exact test showed all loci to be in conformity with HW. Forensic and paternity parameters across the loci showed adequate discriminatory power for forensic identification of individuals as well as sufficient exclusionary power for parentage analysis. Average heterozygosity Fixation Index and Nei's standard genetic distance gave the least distance between the Ibo and Yoruba ethic groups. Allele frequency distribution comparisons at all loci analyzed show substantially no significant difference at 5% level of confidence between the Nigerian population and the FBI African American population allele frequencies. Ethnically blinded test from twenty samples among the three ethnic groups show a high degree of certainty in ethnic origin inferences from unknown samples. The study show Genetic variations between the three populations with marked phylogenetic relationships. Support or Funding Information University of Lagos, Lagos Nigeria