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118 Int'l J. Legal Med. 1 (2004)

handle is hein.journals/injlegame118 and id is 1 raw text is: Int J Legal Med (2004) 118 : 1-4
DOI 10.1007/s00414-003-0394-3

I. Zupanic Pajnic  J. Balazic  R. Komel
Sequence polymorphism of the mitochondrial DNA control region
in the Slovenian population
Received: 11 February 2003 / Accepted: 13 June 2003 / Published online: 8 October 2003
© Springer-Verlag 2003

Abstract The forensic application of mitochondrial DNA
(mtDNA) typing requires large and regionally well-de-
fined databases. To expand the database for forensic iden-
tification purposes in Slovenia, the mtDNA control region
sequences of the hypervariable regions HVI and HVII were
determined in a population of 129 maternally unrelated
Slovenians, using a fluorescent-based capillary electro-
phoresis sequencing method. A total of 111 different hap-
lotypes resulting from 124 polymorphic positions (80 poly-
morphic positions in HVI and 44 in HVII) were found. Of
these, 101 mtDNA types were unique, 6 haplotypes were
shared by 2 individuals, 1 haplotype by 3 individuals, 2 hap-
lotypes by 4 individuals, and the most common haplotype
was found in 5 individuals. The most frequent haplotypes
in the Slovenian population ,263(G), 315.1(C) and 263(G),
309.1(C), 315.1(C) are also the most common in other
European populations. The data support the concept that
these haplotypes may represent a common European mtDNA
sequence types. The sequence poymorphisms were com-
pared to the databases of west Austria and central Italy
and the HVI and HVII sequence matching probabilities
within and between populations were calculated. It is
1.1-4.5 times more likely to find a sequence match in a
random pair of Slovenians than in a random Slovenian-
Italian pair and in a random Slovenian-Austrian pair. The
length heteroplasmy in the homopolymeric C-stretch re-
gions located at nucleotide positions 16184-16193 in HVI
and at positions 303-315 in HVII was observed in 17%
and 8% of individuals, respectively. A statistical estimate
of the results for this population showed the random match
probability and the genetic diversity of 1.16% and 0.996,
respectively.

I. Zupanic Pajnic (®)  J. Balazic
Institute of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine,
Korytkova 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Fax: +386-1-5244974,
e-mail: izupanic@mf.uni-lj.si
R. Komel
Institute of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine,
Vrazov trg 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary ma-
terial is available in the online version of this article at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00414-003-0394-3
Keywords Mitochondrial DNA - Sequencing-
Heteroplasmy - Forensic identification - Population
genetics - Slovenia
Introduction
Sequence analysis of the mitochondrial DNA control re-
gion is of central importance for forensic identity testing
as well as for studies of human evolution. In order to use
the mtDNA analysis in forensic casework we have per-
formed mtDNA database by typing mtDNA HVI and
HVII region in a sample of 129 Slovenians. The sequence
polymorphisms were compared to the databases of west
Austria and central Italy. The mtDNA sequence matching
probabilities within and between European populations
were calculated only for HVI region (Pfeiffer et al. 1999;
Cali et al. 2001). Here we present the calculations of match-
ing probabilities within and between the Slovenian, Aus-
trian and Italian populations for both hypervariable seg-
ments (HVI and HVII) of the mtDNA D-loop region.
Materials and methods
DNA extraction
The population sample included 129 maternally unrelated people
who were not preselected for ethnicity and is therefore representa-
tive of the current ethnical composition of Slovenia. DNA was ex-
tracted from bloodstains, oral swabs and hairs using the chelex ex-
traction procedure (Walsh et al. 1991), followed by purification
with Centricon 100 spin dialysis columns (Amicon). DNA from
the EDTA blood samples was extracted using the QIAamp blood
kit (Qiagen) following the manufacturer's recommendations.
MtDNA amplification
The two hypervariable regions of mtDNA were amplified by the
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) performed in a Biometra UNO-

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