Phylogenetic and forensic studies of the Southeast Florida Hispanic population using the next-generation forensic PowerPlex® Y23 STR marker system

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the robustness and sensitivity of the newly available Y-STR multiplex kit, the PowerPlex® Y23 System, by comparing our data at the 23-loci level to the routinely used 17 loci provided by the AmpFlSTR® Yfiler® PCR Amplification kit. For the first time, allelic and genotypic frequencies for the 23 Y-STR loci included in the PowerPlex® Y23 System are provided for the Southeast Florida Hispanic (SFH) population. In addition, we have characterized the SFH population in terms of intra-population and inter-population parameters. We also compared these indices of forensic and population genetics interest in the SFH population to comparable data of previously published populations to assess their phylogenetic relationships. Our 23-loci data was shown to provide more discriminatory values as compared to the data when using only 17 loci. Also, the RST distance values demonstrate the superior capacity of the PowerPlex® Y23 system to discriminate among populations.

Keywords: Forensic analysis; Phylogenetics; Population genetics; Southeast Florida Hispanics; Y-STRs; Y-chromosome.