Announcement of Population Data Population data of 17 Y-STR loci from Rio Grande do Sul state (South Brazil) Solange P. Schwengber a, *, Trı ´cia Kommers a , Cecı ´lia H.F. Matte a , Paulo E. Raimann a , Bianca A. Carvalho a , Fabio P.N. Leite a , Marcelo A. Medeiros a , Luis F. Souza a , Cibele S. Castro a , Fernanda G.C. Chassot a,b , Sandro L. Bonatto b a Setor de Gene ´tica Forense, Laborato ´rio de Perı´cias, Instituto-Geral de Perı´cias, Secretaria da Seguranc ¸a Pu ´blica do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil b Faculdade de Biocieˆncias, Pontifı´cia Universidade Cato ´lica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil 1. Population A sample composed of 255 individuals from the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), located in the Southern of Brazil. DNA samples were obtained from healthy males randomly sampled from publicly forensic casework in populations from the following seven geopolitical regions (mesorregia ˜o) in RS (sample size in parenthesis): Western Center (18), Eastern Center (22), Metropo- litan of Porto Alegre (81), Northeast (28), Northwest (80), Southeast (11) and Southwest (15) (Fig. 1). All individuals enrolled in the present investigation were informed about the aims of this study and signed a written consent form. 2. Extraction Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood or buccal swab samples using the salting out method according to Miller et al. [1] or a standard phenol–chloroform method. 3. PCR amplification A total of 17 Y-STR loci (DYS456, DYS389I, DYS390, DYS389II, DYS458, DYS19, DYS385ab, DYS393, DYS391, DYS439, DYS635, DYS392, YGATA H4.1, DYS437, DYS438 and DYS448) were studied using the AmpF‘iSTR 1 Yfiler TM (Applied Biosystems). The PCR was performed according to the manufacturer’s instructions using 1–2 ng of template DNA in a 25 ml final reaction volume. 4. Detection system Electrophoresis of the amplified fragments was performed in an ABI PRISM 1 3100-Avant Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosys- tems, Foster City, CA) according to the manufacturer’s recom- mended protocol and using Data Collection v.2.0 and GeneMapper ID v.3.2. 5. Quality control Allelic ladder and DNA control supplied with AmpF‘iSTR 1 Yfiler TM PCR amplification kit (Applied Biosystems) as well as proficiency testing of the GITAD-AICEF Working Group for the markers included in this study [2]. 6. YHRD The Y-STR Haplotype Reference Database [3] Accession Number for the population sample ‘‘Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil [European]’’ n = 255 is YA003462 (http://www.yhrd.org/YA003462). Forensic Science International: Genetics 4 (2009) e31–e33 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 15 December 2008 Received in revised form 28 January 2009 Accepted 4 February 2009 Keywords: Y-chromosomal STR Haplotype Forensic Genetics Brazil Rio Grande do Sul Population data ABSTRACT A sample of 255 Brazilian males from Rio Grande do Sul (RS), the Brazilian southernmost state, was typed for 17 Y-STR loci (DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS635, YGATA_H4.1 and DYS385ab). A total of 247 haplotypes were identified, of which 239 were unique and eight were found in two individuals each. The haplotype diversity (99.98%) and discrimination capacity (96.86%) were calculated. Pairwise haplotype distances showed that the RS population is not significantly different from Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, and Argentina, is different from Sa ˜o Paulo, Italy, and North Portugal, and is very distant from Spain, the Amazon region, Germany, and South Amerindians. When the RS data was separated in the seven geopolitical regions, some pairs of regions were significantly different; however no region was different from the whole Brazilian sample. ß 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 51 32336477. E-mail address: solange-schwengber@igp.rs.gov.br (S.P. Schwengber). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Forensic Science International: Genetics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fsig 1872-4973/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2009.02.001