Analysis of populations within the UAE using tandem repeat DNA markers

This research has been carried out to study the UAE population structure, particularly as the UAE has an unusual population composition. Transient workers from Indian sub-continental outnumber the native Arabic population by approximately three (60%) to one (20%). Other Arab populations make up approximately 15% of the population, the majority are from Egypt, Yemen, Palestine and Sudan. The relatively high levels of consanguineous marriages (between close relatives such as first cousin) between UAE native population added more complexity to the population. Therefore, it was important to analysis the population before applying any new tools to forensic analysis and paternity testing in the UAE. Two polymorphic systems were chosen (VNTRs and STRs) to investigate the population substructure. Five single loci VNTR/HinfI probes MS1, MS31, MS43A, YNH24 and G3 were used to profile 173 individuals from the UAE native Arabic population, 154 individuals from Indian and 112 individuals from Pakistani populations. The FST was calculated by comparing the UAE Arabic population to both Indian and Pakistani populations. The highest value of (0.0062) was observed between the UAE Arabic and Indian populations. No evidence of substructure was observed when Indian population compared to Pakistani population (FST = -0.003). In addition, eight sample STR loci D5S818, D7S820, D13S317, D16S539, vWA, THO1, TPOX and CSF1PO (GenePrintTM PowerPlexTM 1.2 System) were used to profile 229 UAE native Arab (100 from Sharjah and 129 from Abu Dhabi), 194 Indian, 197 Pakistani and 121 Egyptian individuals. The data were analysed to estimate a number of forensic and paternity parameters, including matching probability, discrimination power, probability of paternal exclusion and typical paternity index in order to assess the application of these two systems for forensic and paternity tests in the UAE. The five VNTR loci and eight STR loci together were proved to be very powerful tool for forensic analysis and determining paternity within the UAE