OBJECTIVETo investigate the polymorphisms of 21 short tandem repeat (STR)loci of Salar minority ethnic group in Qinghai Province.

METHODSBlood samples were collected from 120 unrelated healthy Salar individuals from Gandu town in Hualong county. DNA templates were screened by home-made AGCU21+1 kit. The findings were further compared with those of Hans in Zhejiang Province, Hans in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Tibetans in Tibet Autonomous Region, and Tujias in Hubei Province.

RESULTSThe allele frequencies of 21 STR loci ranged 0.0042-0.4917, the genotype frequencies ranged 0.0083-0.3750, the power of discrimination ranged 0.796-0.948, the heterozygosity ranged 0.650-0.817, the polymorphism information contents ranged 0.590-0.810, and the power of exclusion ranged 0.355-0.630. The cumulative coupling probability was 1.75×10(-20), and the cumulative power of exclusion was 0.9999999. Significant differences were found at 14, 12, 12, 13 of the 21 STR loci between Salar and Hans of Zhejiang Province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Tibetans of Tibet Autonomous Region, and Tujias of Hubei Province (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe 21 STR loci used in this study are highly polymorphic in Salar minority ethnic group from Qinghai Province and therefore suitable for population genetics study, screening of disease-related genes, and forensic individual identification.