Genetic polymorphism analyses of 30 InDels in Chinese Xibe ethnic group and its population genetic differentiations with other groups

In the present study, we obtained population genetic data and forensic parameters of 30 InDel loci in Chinese Xibe ethnic group from northwestern China and studied the genetic relationships between the studied Xibe group and other reference groups. The observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.1704 at HLD118 locus to 0.5247 at HLD92 locus while the expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.1559 at HLD118 locus to 0.4997 at HLD101 locus. The cumulative power of exclusion and total probability of discrimination power in the studied group were 0.9867 and 0.9999999999902 for the 30 loci, respectively. Analyses of structure, PCA, interpopulation differentiations and phylogenetic tree revealed that the Xibe group had close genetic relationships with South Korean, Beijing Han and Guangdong Han groups. The results indicated that these 30 loci should only be used as a complement for autosomal STRs in paternity cases but could provide an acceptable level of discrimination in forensic identification cases in the studied Xibe group. Further studies should be conducted for better understanding of the Xibe genetic background.