Announcement of population data Mitochondrial DNA control region population data from Macedonia Bettina Zimmermann a , Anita Brandsta ¨tter a , Nina Duftner a,b,c , Daniela Niederwieser a , Mirko Spiroski d , Todor Arsov d , Walther Parson a, * a Institute of Legal Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University, Mu ¨llerstrasse 44, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria b FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA c Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, 1 University Station, Austin, TX, USA d Institute of Immunobiology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Skopje, Macedonia Received 14 February 2007; accepted 18 March 2007 Abstract Mitochondrial DNA sequences of the entire control region were analyzed in 200 unrelated individuals from Macedonia. A total of 163 different haplotypes were found as determined by 177 polymorphic sites. The probability of a random match was calculated as 1:121 (0.83%). The basic phylogenetic structure of the Macedonian population as derived from its haplogroup distribution is in agreement with other West-Eurasian populations. Upon publication, the population data are going to be available in the EMPOP database (www.empop.org) [W. Parson, A. Du ¨ r, EMPOP—a forensic mtDNA database, FSI:Genetics 1 (2) (2007) 88–92; W. Parson, A. Brandsta ¨tter, A. Alonso, N. Brandt, B. Brinkmann, A. Carracedo, et al., The EDNAP mitochondrial DNA population database (EMPOP) collaborative exercises: organisation, results and perspectives, Forensic Sci. Int. 139 (2–3) (2004) 215–226.]. # 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Macedonia; Population data; Entire control region; mtDNA polymorphism; Haplotypes Population: Blood samples were obtained from 200 healthy unrelated male and female volunteers of Macedonian origin, nationality and linguistic affiliation. Individuals are of Christian Orthodox religion, were born in and are residents of different geographical regions of the Republic of Macedonia. In addition to the birth place of the samples, the names and birth places of mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers of all samples (if known by the sample donor) were recorded. Samples were stored in the Macedonian Human DNA Bank (www.hdnamkd.org.mk) [3]. DNA extraction: Genomic DNA was isolated from peripheral blood leukocytes by the phenol–chloroform extrac- tion method [4]. Amplification and sequencing of mtDNA entire control region: PCR amplification and sequencing reactions were performed as reported in Ref. [5]. Analysis of data: Sequence alignment and evaluation were performed twice by two independent scientists using the sequence analysis software SeqScape (Version 2.0, AB). Consensus sequences were aligned and compared to the revised Cambridge Reference Sequence (rCRS [6,7]). Observed sequence variants were notated following nomen- clature guidelines for mtDNA typing [8–10]. Macedonian mtDNA haplotypes were affiliated to (sub)-haplogroups based on patterns of shared haplogroup-specific or haplogroup- associated polymorphisms in the control region, as reported in Refs. [11–16]. When samples could not unambiguously be assigned to a particular haplogroup, the analysis of 16 diagnostic mtDNA coding region SNPs [17] allowed us to classify the major haplogroup status. The random match probability was calculated as the sum of the squares of the haplotype frequencies [18]. Genetic diversity indices were calculated using the ARLEQUIN software (Version 3.1) [19]. C-Stretch length variants in HSV-I, HSV-II and HSV-III were ignored for calculating random match probabilities and genetic diversity indices. Results: The polymorphic sites observed from sequencing of the entire control region are presented as haplotype data in Table 1. The probability of a random match (RMP) between two unrelated individuals from this Macedonian dataset (n = 200) was calculated 1:121 or 0.83% for the entire control region (when taking C-stretch length variants into consideration, the observed www.elsevier.com/locate/fsig Forensic Science International: Genetics 1 (2007) e4–e9 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +43 512 9003 70640; fax: +43 512 9003 73640. E-mail address: walther.parson@i-med.ac.at (W. Parson). 1872-4973/$ – see front matter # 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2007.03.002