Abstract:

Inference of the population and ancestry to which an individual belongs is important in forensic individualization and personal identification. In this study, five polymorphisms of the membrane-associated transporter protein (MATP) gene were investigated in German and Japanese populations. The L374F mutation was present at an allele frequency as high as 0.96 in the German population, whereas it was completely absent in the Japanese population. This extreme difference in allele frequency suggests that the L374F mutation is valuable as a population and ancestry informative marker for Caucasoids.

Keywords: Ancestry marker; L374F; Membrane-associated transporter protein; Polymorphism; Population marker

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1007/s00414-004-0490-z

Affiliations: 1: Division of Legal Medicine Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, 683–8503, Yonago, Japan, Email: yuasai@grape.med.tottori-u.ac.jp 2: Department of Experimental and Forensic Pathology Faculty of Medicine, Yamagata University, Yamagata, Japan, 3: Forensic Science Laboratory, Yamagata Prefectural Police Headquarters, Yamagata, Japan, 4: Criminal Investigation Laboratory, Shimane Prefectural Police Headquarters, Matsue, Japan, 5: Division of Legal Medicine Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, 683–8503, Yonago, Japan,