Development and validation of the EUROFORGEN NAME (North African and Middle Eastern) ancestry panel

V Pereira; A Freire-Aradas; D Ballard; C Børsting; V Diez; P Pruszkowska-Przybylska; J Ribeiro; N M Achakzai; A Aliferi; O Bulbul; M D Perez Carceles; S Triki-Fendri; A Rebai; D Syndercombe Court; N Morling; M V Lareu; Á Carracedo; EUROFORGEN-NoE Consortium; C Phillips

doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2019.06.010

Development and validation of the EUROFORGEN NAME (North African and Middle Eastern) ancestry panel

Forensic Sci Int Genet. 2019 Sep:42:260-267. doi: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2019.06.010. Epub 2019 Jun 15.

Authors

V Pereira¹, A Freire-Aradas², D Ballard³, C Børsting¹, V Diez¹, P Pruszkowska-Przybylska⁴, J Ribeiro¹, N M Achakzai², A Aliferi³, O Bulbul⁵, M D Perez Carceles⁶, S Triki-Fendri⁷, A Rebai⁷, D Syndercombe Court³, N Morling¹, M V Lareu², Á Carracedo⁸; EUROFORGEN-NoE Consortium; C Phillips⁹

Affiliations

¹ Section of Forensic Genetics, Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederik V's Vej 11, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
² Forensic Genetics Unit, Institute of Forensic Sciences, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
³ Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College, London, UK.
⁴ Section of Forensic Genetics, Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederik V's Vej 11, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Łódź, Poland.
⁵ Institute of Forensic Science, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
⁶ Department of Legal Medicine, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
⁷ Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax, Bioinformatics Research Group, Sfax, Tunisia.
⁸ Forensic Genetics Unit, Institute of Forensic Sciences, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Center of Excellence in Genomic Medicine Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Forensic Genetics Unit, Institute of Forensic Sciences, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 31404905
DOI: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2019.06.010

Abstract

Inference of biogeographic origin is an important factor in clinical, population and forensic genetics. The information provided by AIMs (Ancestry Informative Markers) can allow the differentiation of major continental population groups, and several AIM panels have been developed for this purpose. However, from these major population groups, Eurasia covers a wide area between two continents that is difficult to differentiate genetically. These populations display a gradual genetic cline from West Europe to South Asia in terms of allele frequency distribution. Although differences have been reported between Europe and South Asia, Middle East populations continue to be a target of further investigations due to the lack of genetic variability, therefore hampering their genetic differentiation from neighboring populations. In the present study, a custom-built ancestry panel was developed to analyze North African and Middle Eastern populations, designated the 'NAME' panel. The NAME panel contains 111 SNPs that have patterns of allele frequency differentiation that can distinguish individuals originating in North Africa and the Middle East when combined with a previous set of 126 Global AIM-SNPs.

Keywords: AIMs; Biogeographic ancestry; MPS; Middle Eastern populations; SNPs.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Validation Study

MeSH terms

Africa, Northern
Black People / genetics*
DNA Fingerprinting
Forensic Genetics / methods*
Gene Frequency
Genetic Markers
Genetics, Population*
Genotyping Techniques
Humans
Middle East
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
Principal Component Analysis

Substances

Genetic Markers