Haplotype and Genetic Analysis of 41 Y-STR Loci in the Wuwei Han Population from Gansu Province, China

Objective: Y-Chromosomal short tandem repeat polymorphism (Y-STR) analysis plays an indispensable role in the identification of male individuals, population genetics, and biogeographic research. While profiles of many populations based on Y-STR markers in human genomes are ample, haplotype data for the Wuwei Han are still scarce. Methods: In this study, 2180 unrelated Wuwei Han male individuals residing in Gansu Province, China were collected and genotyped using the novel Microreader (TM) 40Y Plus ID system. Phylogenetic relationship reconstructions, multidimensional scaling (MDS), and heatmap analysis were performed based on the genetic distance (Rst) values between our studied population and other populations of the Ymax module in the Y-STR Haplotype Reference Database (YHRD). Results: A total of 2129 unique haplotypes were obtained, and the haplotype diversity (HD) and discrimination capacity (DC) for the Wuwei Han were 0.9999 and 0.9931, respectively. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that the Wuwei Han population had intimate genetic relationships with East Asians, especially the geographically close Han populations. Overall, this Y-Chromosomal assay gives valuable information about paternal lineages in male individual tracking and genealogical database construction.