Nilotes from Karamoja, Uganda: Haplotype data defined by 17 Y-chromosome STRs

Abstract 

In this work 118 Nilote male samples were genotyped from Karamoja region, in Northeast Uganda, through 17 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (STRs)—DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS385, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS635 and GATA H4.1. A total of 94 different haplotypes were found, where 19 were shared by at least two individuals, and haplotype diversity amounted to 0.9958±0.0017. When considering only the nine Y-STRs included in the minimal haplotype (YHRD) the haplotype diversity decreased to 0.9807±0.0048, a similar value to those found in other African populations such as Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau. Population comparisons were performed between our sample and nine other African populations. Significant R_st genetic distances were obtained between the Nilote population from Karamoja and all African populations used for comparison, except Xhosa sample from South Africa. In the multidimensional scaling (MDS) plot, the Karamoja sample is well separated from all other populations, standing between the Ethiopia and the Bantu samples, although closer to this last group.

Keywords: Y-STRs, Yfiler, Nilotes, Karamoja, Uganda