OVERVIEW OF THE AUTOSOMAL STR CLUSTERING BETWEEN BALKANPOPULATIONS
Autosomal short tandem repeats (STRs) are the most widely used DNA markers in forensic investigation of the population history, human migration patterns, and genealogical research. In this study, the usefulness of 13 most widely used STR loci (D3S1358, TH01, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, D16S539, CSF1PO, vWA, D8S1179, TPOX, and FGA) was examined along with the investigation of their application in the studies of the phylogeny of human populations. We compared allele frequencies of STR loci of the populations from the Balkan Peninsula to determine the similarities and differences among them and to determine how informative they are when it comes to the human identity testing. We made UPGMA phylogenetic tree using POPTREE2 software and Nei’s table of genetic distances using MEGA5.21 software. Additionally, MDS (multidimensional scaling) plot was generated using SPSS 20.0 software. The results implied that both geographical proximity and shared history are determining the strong clustering of the populations on the Balkans. Another conclusion drawn from this overview is that the studied STR markers are highly polymorphic and thus, satisfyingly informative to be used for human identity testing and phylogenetic research. Keywords: Balkan Peninsula, autosomal STRs, phylogenetic tree, genetic distance, clustering, population study