Short Communication

Identification of variant alleles at AmpFlSTR SGM Plus STR loci in a sample population of Bangladesh

M.d. Eunus Ali², Ahmad Ferdous², Shafiul Alam², Ummey Hany², Tania Hossain², Mahamud Hasan² and Sharif Akhteruzzaman¹*

¹Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

²National Forensic DNA Profiling Laboratory, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: sazaman@univdhaka.edu, sharif_akhteruzzaman@yahoo.com. Tel: +88-02-9661920-59/7641(O),+88-02-7169429 (R), +88-01715104905 (M). Fax: +88-02-8615583.

Accepted 15 September, 2008

DNA profiles obtained from 442 individuals using AmpFlSTRÒ SGM PlusÔ PCR amplification kit (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) were screened for variant alleles not included within allelic ladder provided by the manufacturer. A total of 5 distinct variants were identified at 3 of the 10 European core STR loci tested. This study identified one variant at D16S539 locus (allele 7), two variants at D21S11 locus (allele 29.3 and 34.1) and two other rare variants at D19S433 locus (allele 11.2 and 18). Of these 5 alleles, variant 29.3 and 34.1 found at D21S11 have been previously reported in Caucasians and African Americans. The rest three variants (allele 7 at D16S539, allele 11.2 and 18 at D19S433) have been separately reported in STRBase (http://www.cstl.nist.gov/biotech/strbase), but no published reports are available. All these alleles fell within the allelic range of the allelic ladder except allele 18 at D19S433 locus, which fell outside the range.

Key words:  Allele, locus, variant, chelex, macro.