Population genetic data of the 21 autosomal STRs included in GlobalFiler kit of a population sample from the Kingdom of Bahrain

RESEARCH ARTICLE Population genetic data of the 21 autosomal STRs included in GlobalFiler kit of a population sample from the Kingdom of Bahrain Noora R. Al-Snan ID1,2*, Safia Messaoudi3☯, Saranya R. Babu3☯, Moiz Bakhiet ID1☯ 1 Department of Molecular Medicine, College of Medical and Medicine Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, Kingdom of Bahrain, 2 Forensic Science Laboratory, Directorate of Forensic Science, General Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Forensic Science, Ministry of Interior, Kingdom of Bahrain, 3 Forensic Biology Department, College of Forensic Sciences, Naif Arab University for Security Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ☯ These authors contributed equally to this work. * a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Al-Snan NR, Messaoudi S, R. Babu S, Bakhiet M (2019) Population genetic data of the 21 autosomal STRs included in GlobalFiler kit of a population sample from the Kingdom of Bahrain. PLoS ONE 14(8): e0220620. https://doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0220620 Editor: Narasimha Reddy Parine, King Saud University, SAUDI ARABIA Received: February 26, 2019 Accepted: July 18, 2019 Published: August 15, 2019 Copyright: © 2019 Al-Snan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files. Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. Abstract Bahrain’s population consists mainly of Arabs, Baharna and Persians leading Bahrain to become ethnically diverse. The exploration of the ethnic origin and genetic structure within the Bahraini population is fundamental mainly in the field of population genetics and forensic science. The purpose of the study was to investigate and conduct genetic studies in the population of Bahrain to assist in the interpretation of DNA-based forensic evidence and in the construction of appropriate databases. 24 short-tandem repeats in the GlobalFiler PCR Amplification kit including 21 autosomal STR loci and three gender determination loci were amplified to characterize different genetic and forensic population parameters in a cohort of 543 Bahraini unrelated healthy men. Samples were collected during the year 2017. The genotyping of the 21 autosomal STRs showed all of the loci were in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) after applying Bonferroni’s correction. We also found out no significant deviations from LD between pairwise STR loci in Bahraini population except when plotting for D3S1358-CSF1PO, CSF1PO-SE33, D19S433-D12S391, FGA-D2S1338, FGA-SE33, FGA-D7S820 and D7S820-SE33. The SE33 locus was the most polymorphic for the studied population and THO1 locus was the less polymorphic. The Allele 8 in TPOX scored the highest allele frequency of 0.496. The SE33 locus showed the highest power of discrimination (PD) in Bahraini population, whereas TPOX showed the lowest PD value. The 21 autosomal STRs showed a value of combined match probability (CMP) equal to 4.5633E-27, and a combined power of discrimination (CPD) of 99.99999999%. Off-ladders and tri-allelic variants were observed in various samples at D12S391, SE33 and D22S1045 loci. Additionally, pairwise genetic distances based on FST were calculated between Bahraini population and other populations extracted from the literature. Genetic distances were represented in a non-metric MDS plot and clustering of populations according to their geographic locations was detected. Phylogenetic tree was constructed to investigate the genetic relatedness between Bahraini population and the neighboring populations. Our study indicated that the twenty-one autosomal STRs are highly polymorphic in the Bahraini population and can be Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220620 August 15, 2019 1 / 14 Population genetic data of Bahraini population used as a powerful tool in forensics and population genetic analyses including paternity testing and familial DNA searching. Introduction Kingdom of Bahrain is a small archipelago consisting of 33 islands, only the five largest are inhabited. These islands are Bahrain, Muharraq, Umm and Nasan and Sitra. Bahrain is positioned in the Arabian Gulf. To the southeast of Bahrain is the State of Qatar, and to its west lies the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with which it is connected by a 25-kilometer causeway. To the north and east of Bahrain lies the Islamic Republic of Iran [1]. Bahrain is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with a total landmass of 760 square kilometers. Mid-2014, estimates of Bahrain’s population stood at 1,314,562 persons. Of these, 568,399 are Bahraini citizens (46%) and 666,172 are expatriates (54%) [2]. Standing between the most substantial focal points of the ancient world–the Far East, the Indus Valley, Fertile Crescent, the Red Sea and the Coast of East Africa [3], trade goods from the Persian Gulf made its way into Europe through Antioch [4]. This made Bahrain an important port city, a metropolitan hub where different cultures met [5]. Because of the geographic location of Bahrain, the diversity of the population had been affected. This could be explained by the migration flows from several areas regionally, and eventually internationally [6]. Iranians and migrants of Iranian heritage constituted the largest groups of migrants who were Muslim and ethnically not Arab [7]. Indian and Iranian migration boomed in the early and mid-20th century, as the Bahrain Petroleum Company sought a workforce for the oil that was discovered in the island [8]. Population is mainly divided into four main ethnic groups: Arabs, Baharna and Persians (Huwala and Ajam) [4,9,10]. This geographical and social organization might be expected to have an effect on patterns of a genetic diversity [11]. Genetic studies on Bahrain to date are very limited and knowledge of any such structure is important in the interpretation of the significance of DNA-based forensic evidence and in the construction of appropriate databases. This present study is the first to characterize genetically the Bahraini population, using Globalfiler amplification kit. Twenty-four autosomal short-tandem repeats (STRs) in GlobalFiler PCR Amplification kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Waltham, MA, USA) were studied to characterize different forensic and genetic population parameters in 545 Bahraini males. The 6-dye GlobalFiler PCR Amplification kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Waltham, MA, USA) was designed to incorporate 21 commonly used autosomal STR loci (D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, CSF1PO, D3S1358, TH01, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D19S433, VWA, TPOX, D18S51, D5S818, FGA, D12S391, D1S1656, D2S441, D10S1248, D22S1045 an (...truncated)