INTRODUCTION {#s1}
============

Short tandem repeats (STRs) are widely distributed in human genome and play a significant role in forensic DNA analysis. Autosomal STRs have been the most common genetic markers in forensic applications and could be used to solve most of the personal identification and paternity testing cases \[[@R1], [@R2]\]. However, Y-chromosomal STRs (Y-STRs) would be more helpful in some special cases, such as mixed stain detection for sexual-assault cases, the paternal migration history tracing \[[@R3]\], and so on, because STRs on the non-recombining region of Y-chromosome do not participate in meiotic recombination and are unaltered when inherited from father to son \[[@R4]--[@R6]\]. At present, autosomal STRs or Y-STRs are often used alone in forensic applications. However, when autosomal STRs and Y-STRs were co-amplification in a single fluorescence multiplex system, they would be useful in both personal identification and paternity testing cases, for those Y-STRs could be helpful in the determination of gender and the reconstruction of paternal lineage \[[@R7], [@R8]\].

Southern Shaanxi region is the south part of Shaanxi province, covering the area from the south of Qinling Mountains to the north of Ba Mountain with the Han River flowing through from west to east; Southern Shaanxi consists of three cities: Hanzhong, Ankang and Shangluo, from west to east where mainly reside the Han population \[[@R9], [@R10]\]. To further understand the genetic background of Southern Shaanxi Han population and provide population genetic data for forensic identification, we firstly studied 15 autosomal STR loci and 10 Y-STR loci together in Chinese Han population from Southern Shaanxi region, calculated the forensic parameters, and collected previously published population data with overlapping loci of both autosomal STRs and Y-STRs, to discuss the genetic relationships between the studied population and other populations.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS {#s2}
=======================

The analysis of allelic frequencies and forensic parameters for the 15 autosomal STRs {#s2_1}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to the results of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) tests (presented in Table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}), all the autosomal STR loci showed no deviations from HWE (*p*\>0.05). Tests of linkage disequilibrium (LD) were performed for all pairs of autosomal STR loci and the results were shown in Table [2](#T2){ref-type="table"}. No LD was observed at a significance level of 0.0033 (α = 0.05/15) after Bonferroni correction, which indicated these autosomal STR loci were relatively independent. As summarized in Table [3](#T3){ref-type="table"}, there were totally 150 alleles found at the 15 autosomal STR loci in the Southern Shaanxi Han population. As summarized in Table [1](#T1){ref-type="table"}, the observed heterozygosity (Ho) in the studied population ranged from 0.6075 (TPOX locus) to 0.8411 (D8S1179 and D18S51 loci). The loci D18S51 and TPOX showed the highest and lowest expected heterozygosity (He), respectively. The power of discrimination (PD) and power of exclusion (PE) ranged from 0.7944 (TPOX locus) to 0.9623 (D2S1338 locus); and 0.2999 (TPOX locus) to 0.6774 (D8S1179 and D18S51 loci), respectively. The combined PD and PE were 0.99999999999999998866 and 0.999998491, respectively. All the 15 autosomal STR loci were found to be highly polymorphic in Southern Shaanxi Han population and the high value, which indicated their large potentiality for forensic individual identification.

###### Forensic efficiency parameters of 15 autosomal STR loci in Southern Shaanxi Han (n = 214; 108 males and 106 females)

  Loci      MP       PD       PIC      PE       TPI      Ho       He       *P*
  --------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------
  D3S1358   0.1284   0.8716   0.6795   0.5058   1.9815   0.7477   0.7311   0.5469
  D13S317   0.0762   0.9238   0.7753   0.6593   2.9722   0.8318   0.8079   0.3396
  D7S820    0.0814   0.9186   0.7581   0.6060   2.5476   0.8037   0.7924   0.6354
  D16S539   0.0742   0.9258   0.7677   0.6413   2.8158   0.8224   0.8020   0.4141
  D19S433   0.0617   0.9383   0.7903   0.6235   2.6750   0.8131   0.8177   0.9201
  TPOX      0.2056   0.7944   0.5485   0.2999   1.2738   0.6075   0.6167   0.8143
  TH01      0.1652   0.8348   0.6147   0.3808   1.5070   0.6682   0.6629   0.8320
  D2S1338   0.0377   0.9623   0.8432   0.6593   2.9722   0.8318   0.8630   0.2174
  CSF1PO    0.1197   0.8803   0.6805   0.4593   1.7833   0.7196   0.7272   0.8481
  vWA       0.0717   0.9283   0.7706   0.6060   2.5476   0.8037   0.8047   0.9718
  D5S818    0.0812   0.9188   0.7535   0.5973   2.4884   0.7991   0.7897   0.6879
  FGA       0.0413   0.9587   0.8361   0.6147   2.6098   0.8084   0.8559   0.0597
  D8S1179   0.0426   0.9574   0.8321   0.6774   3.1471   0.8411   0.8541   0.6524
  D21S11    0.0494   0.9506   0.8182   0.6683   3.0571   0.8364   0.8409   0.9216
  D18S51    0.0401   0.9599   0.8468   0.6774   3.1471   0.8411   0.8658   0.3338

MP, matching probability; PD, power of discrimination; PIC, polymorphism information content; PE, probability of exclusion; TPI, typical paternity index; Ho, observed heterozygosity; He, expected heterozygosity; *P*, probability values of exact tests for Hardy--Weinberg equilibrium.

###### *P*-value in pairwise linkage disequilibrium test at 15 autosomal STR loci in the Southern Shaanxi Han

  Loci      D18S51   D21S11   D8S1179   FGA      D5S818   vWA      CSF1PO   D2S1338   TH01     TPOX     D19S433   D16S539   D7S820   D13S317
  --------- -------- -------- --------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------- -------- -------- --------- --------- -------- ---------
  D21S11    0.6296                                                                                                                   
  D8S1179   0.5324   0.5499                                                                                                          
  FGA       0.9829   0.9916   0.5286                                                                                                 
  D5S818    0.5533   0.3886   0.1205    0.2850                                                                                       
  vWA       0.7924   0.5526   0.6802    0.6905   0.8789                                                                              
  CSF1PO    0.4312   0.0657   0.5942    0.3433   0.1912   0.6657                                                                     
  D2S1338   0.2196   0.0498   0.1329    0.5224   0.5909   0.2480   0.1339                                                            
  TH01      0.2324   0.8556   0.2354    0.0941   0.1334   0.1961   0.5523   0.7025                                                   
  TPOX      0.7221   0.8615   0.9330    0.5244   0.4134   0.0419   0.2683   0.0599    0.6112                                         
  D19S433   0.8361   0.6447   0.4450    0.9006   0.6020   0.5437   0.5998   0.0914    0.5520   0.5389                                
  D16S539   0.1618   0.0346   0.3984    0.4926   0.0547   0.7402   0.7314   0.6914    0.8953   0.6968   0.9795                       
  D7S820    0.2090   0.7743   0.5845    0.6665   0.8183   0.2245   0.5539   0.7382    0.1664   0.7873   0.7797    0.9245             
  D13S317   0.3965   0.8040   0.9324    0.8956   0.3898   0.9323   0.8857   0.7502    0.9283   0.7024   0.3950    0.2245    0.9659   
  D3S1358   0.2112   0.3818   0.7652    0.9047   0.2617   0.6080   0.8065   0.2471    0.0870   0.1014   0.1553    0.0909    0.3529   0.8748

###### Allele frequency distributions of 15 autosomal STR loci in Southern Shaanxi Han (n = 214; 108 males and 106 females)

  Allele       D3S1358       Allele       FGA           Allele       D21S11    Allele       D19S433       Allele       D18S51       Allele       D2S1338    Allele   D5S818
  ------------ ------------- ------------ ------------- ------------ --------- ------------ ------------- ------------ ------------ ------------ ---------- -------- --------
  14           0.0467        16           0.0023        16           0.0047    11           0.0023        10           0.0023       16           0.0187     7        0.0304
  15           0.3341        18           0.0140        28           0.0607    12           0.0491        12           0.0467       17           0.0841     9        0.0701
  16           0.3248        19           0.0607        28.2         0.0140    12.2         0.0070        13           0.2009       18           0.0771     10       0.2126
  17           0.2220        20           0.0491        29           0.2336    13           0.2921        14           0.1939       19           0.1916     11       0.3014
  18           0.0607        20.2         0.0023        30           0.2570    13.2         0.0304        15           0.1706       20           0.1192     12       0.2243
  19           0.0093        21           0.0864        30.2         0.0164    14           0.2360        16           0.1145       21           0.0164     13       0.1472
  20           0.0023        21.2         0.0047        30.3         0.0047    14.2         0.1215        17           0.0935       22           0.0514     14       0.0117
  **Allele**   **D13S317**   22           0.1379        31           0.0981    15           0.0607        18           0.0374       23           0.2033     15       0.0023
  8            0.2570        23           0.2593        31.2         0.0911    15.2         0.1472        19           0.0584       24           0.1706              
  9            0.1449        23.2         0.0070        31.3         0.0023    16           0.0093        20           0.0444       25           0.0584              
  10           0.1262        24           0.1776        32           0.0304    16.2         0.0397        21           0.0117       26           0.0070              
  11           0.2453        24.2         0.0164        32.2         0.1308    17           0.0023        22           0.0117       27           0.0023              
  12           0.1729        25           0.1168        33           0.0023    17.2         0.0023        23           0.0023       **Allele**   **TH01**            
  13           0.0537        25.2         0.0047        33.2         0.0467    **Allele**   **D8S1179**   24           0.0070       6            0.1075              
  **Allele**   **D7S820**    26           0.0491        34.2         0.0047    8            0.0023        25           0.0047       7            0.2570              
  7            0.0047        27           0.0117        35.2         0.0023    9            0.0023        **Allele**   **CSF1PO**   8            0.0444              
  8            0.1449        **Allele**   **D16S539**   **Allele**   **vWA**   10           0.1168        7            0.0070       9            0.5070              
  9            0.0701        8            0.0093        14           0.2360    11           0.1005        9            0.0374       9.3          0.0444              
  9.1          0.0047        9            0.2407        15           0.0164    12           0.0888        10           0.2547       10           0.0397              
  10           0.1659        10           0.1449        16           0.1799    13           0.2196        11           0.1963       **Allele**   **TPOX**            
  10.1         0.0047        11           0.2617        17           0.2523    14           0.1846        12           0.4065       8            0.5210              
  11           0.3107        12           0.1963        18           0.1729    15           0.1519        13           0.0771       9            0.1192              
  12           0.2430        13           0.1238        19           0.1308    16           0.1121        14           0.0117       10           0.0234              
  13           0.0467        14           0.0210        20           0.0093    17           0.0187        15           0.0047       11           0.3154              
  14           0.0047        15           0.0023        21           0.0023    18           0.0023        23           0.0047       12           0.0210              

Interpopulation differentiations based on the 15 overlapping autosomal STRs {#s2_2}
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fst statistics is one of the most widely used measures for genetic differentiation and plays a central role in genetic studies \[[@R11]\]. Reference populations including Hui \[[@R12],[@R13]\], Uygur \[[@R14], [@R15]\], Eastern Han (from Zhejiang, China) \[[@R16], [@R17]\], Salar \[[@R18], [@R19]\], Miao \[[@R20], [@R21]\], Tibetan \[[@R22], [@R23]\], Yi \[[@R21], [@R24]\], Shandong Han \[[@R25], [@R26]\], Korean \[[@R27], [@R28]\], Bangladeshis \[[@R29], [@R30]\], Serbian \[[@R31], [@R32]\], Xibe \[[@R33], [@R34]\], Dong \[[@R21], [@R35]\], Maonan \[[@R21], [@R36]\], Moroccan \[[@R37], [@R38]\], Croatian \[[@R39], [@R40]\], Nepalese \[[@R41], [@R42]\], Jilin Han \[[@R43], [@R44]\] and Liaoning Han \[[@R45], [@R46]\] were used for population genetic analysis based on the same of autosomal STRs or Y-STR loci, respectively. The pairwise Fst and *p* values based on 15 STR loci between Southern Shaanxi Han population and other 19 populations were shown in [Supplementary Table 1](#SD2){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. The statistically significant differences (*p*\<0.05/15=0.0033 after Bonferroni correction) were found between the Southern Shaanxi Han population and Serbian, Moroccan, Croatian, Miao, Shandong Han, Yi, Bangladeshis, Nepalese, Uygur and Dong populations at 11, 11, 10, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1 and 1 loci, respectively. And then there was no significant difference obtained between Southern Shaanxi Han population and Eastern Han, Liaoning Han, Jilin Han, Hui, Salar, Tibetan, Xibe, Maonan and Korean populations, which indicated there were relatively close genetic distances among them.

Principal component analysis based on the 15 overlapping autosomal STRs {#s2_3}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The principal component analysis (PCA) was performed among the Southern Shaanxi Han population and other 19 populations using the allelic frequencies of the 15 overlapping autosomal STR loci. The PCA result was shown in Figure [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}. The first and second components accounted for 44.00 and 12.73% of the total variance, respectively; and the cumulative contribution of them was 56.73%, which was over half of the total variance. According to Figure [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}, Southern Shaanxi Han was located in left part, close to Eastern Han, Liaoning Han and Jilin Han population. Moroccan, Croatian and Serbian gathered in the right edge of the plot, which were relatively far away from Southern Shaanxi Han.

![Principal component analysis based on the 15 overlapping autosomal STR loci of Southern Shaanxi Han population and 19 reference populations](oncotarget-08-55443-g001){#F1}

Phylogenetic analysis based on the 15 overlapping autosomal STRs {#s2_4}
----------------------------------------------------------------

The neighbor-joining tree (NJ tree) of the Southern Shaanxi Han and other 19 populations based on allelic frequencies of 15 overlapping autosomal STR loci was shown in Figure [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}. In the NJ tree, the Southern Shaanxi Han population was also observed to be close with the Eastern Han and Jilin Han population. However, Serbian, Croatian and Moroccan populations were located furthest away from Southern Shaanxi Han population. The phylogenetic result was consistent with the results of above-mentioned PCA.

![The neighbor-joining tree based on the 15 overlapping autosomal STR loci of Southern Shaanxi Han population and 19 reference populations](oncotarget-08-55443-g002){#F2}

Allelic frequencies and haplotypic diversities of the 10 Y-STR loci {#s2_5}
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Allelic frequencies and Gene diversity (GD) values of the 10 Y-STR loci in 108 Southern Shaanxi Han male individuals were shown in Table [4](#T4){ref-type="table"}, the allelic frequencies ranged from 0.0093 to 0.7407. GD values of all the loci were higher than 0.5 with the exceptions of DYS391 (0.4010) and DYS438 (0.3813) loci. The highest GD value was obtained at loci DYS385a, b with a value of 0.9983. The discriminatory capacity (DC) and haplotypic diversities (HD) values of the 10 Y-STR loci were 0.9259 and 0.9983, respectively. Haplotypic results of the 10 Y-STR loci were shown in [Supplementary Table 2](#SD3){ref-type="supplementary-material"}. One hundred different haplotypes were obtained, 94 of which were unique. We compared the 10 Y-STR haplotype data with the haplotype database in YHRD (<http://www.yhrd.org>) (Released March 01, 2017). Forty-one haplotypes detected in the Southern Shaanxi Han population were found with no matches in 131889 Haplotypes. Sixty-three haplotypes were found with matches in 31445 East Asian-Sino-Tibetan-Chinese and 17 haplotypes were found with matches in 3248 East Asian-Sino-Tibetan-Tibeto-Burman.

###### Allele frequencies and Gene diversities (GD) for the 10 Y-STR loci in Southern Shaanxi Han (n = 108)

  Allele   DYS635   DYS456   DYS458   DYS391   DYS392   DYS390   DYS393   DYS438   DYS385a,b                    
  -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- ----------- -------- ------- --------
  8                                                                       0.0185   10,12       0.0093   13,17   0.0093
  9                                   0.0185                                       10,17       0.0185   13,18   0.0926
  10                                  0.7407   0.0093                     0.7593   11,11       0.0370   13,19   0.0278
  11                                  0.2315   0.1481                     0.2130   11,12       0.0278   13,20   0.0093
  12                                  0.0093   0.1481            0.5556   0.0093   11,13       0.0093   13,21   0.0278
  13                0.0093   0.0093            0.3519            0.2593            11,16       0.0185   13,26   0.0093
  14                0.2685   0.0185            0.2685            0.1111            11,17       0.0370   14,17   0.0185
  15                0.4815   0.1296            0.0741            0.0741            11,18       0.0093   14,18   0.0185
  15                         0.0093                                                11,19       0.0370   14,19   0.0093
  16                0.1574   0.1852                                                12,12       0.0370   14,21   0.0093
  17                0.0741   0.2778                                                12,14       0.0093   14,22   0.0093
  18                0.0093   0.2222                                                12,15       0.0093   15,17   0.0093
  19       0.1389            0.1111                                                12,16       0.0741   15,19   0.0093
  20       0.2778            0.0185                     0.0093                     12,17       0.0185   15,20   0.0093
  21       0.2778            0.0093                                                12,19       0.0926   15,22   0.0093
  22       0.2037            0.0093                     0.0093                     12,20       0.0741   18,19   0.0093
  23       0.0556                                       0.5093                     13,13       0.1204           
  24       0.0370                                       0.2407                     13,14       0.0370           
  25       0.0093                                       0.2222                     13,15       0.0093           
  26                                                    0.0093                     13,16       0.0278           
  GD       0.7876   0.6719   0.8165   0.4010   0.7617   0.6390   0.6120   0.3813               0.9983           

GD, gene diversity.

Multidimensional scaling analysis based on the 10 Y- STRs {#s2_6}
---------------------------------------------------------

The multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS) analysis was performed among the Southern Shaanxi Han population and 19 other populations based on *Rst* values at the 10 overlapping Y-STR loci in order to address population relationships, and the result was shown in Figure [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}. According to the figure, Southern Shaanxi Han was located in right part, closest to Eastern Han population, Liaoning Han and Jilin Han. The result was similar to the above results of population genetic analyses based on the 15 overlapping autosomal STR loci.

![Multidimensional scaling analysis plot of the 20 populations based on the 10 overlapping Y-STR loci](oncotarget-08-55443-g003){#F3}

Phylogenetic analysis based on the 10 Y-STRs {#s2_7}
--------------------------------------------

As shown in Figure [4](#F4){ref-type="fig"}, the genetic relationships of the studied Southern Shaanxi Han and other 19 populations at the 10 overlapping Y-STRs were analyzed by the phylogenetic tree. In the NJ tree, the Southern Shaanxi Han population was also clustered close with the Eastern Han, Liaoning Han, Korean, Shandong Han and Xibe populations. Moreover, Croatian, Serbian, Moroccan and Yi populations were located furthest to Southern Shaanxi Han population. The phylogenetic result was similar to MDS result.

![The neighbor-joining tree based on the 10 overlapping Y-STR loci of Southern Shaanxi Han population and 19 reference populations](oncotarget-08-55443-g004){#F4}

Southern Shaanxi Han speak Chinese, which belongs to Sino-Tibetan. Although settling in different areas, Southern Shaanxi Han and Eastern Han have a relatively close genetic relationship. However, for populations from other continents or races, such as Serbian, Moroccan, and Croatian, the genetic relationships with Southern Shaanxi Han would be quite distant because of their different origins and genetic structures. At present, there is little research on Southern Shaanxi Han population; more population genetic studies would help us get a better understanding of this population genetic backgroud in the future.

MATERIALS AND METHODS {#s3}
=====================

Sample collection and DNA extraction {#s3_1}
------------------------------------

We collected 214 blood samples (108 males and 106 females) from unrelated healthy Han individuals living in the south of Shaanxi province (Southern Shaanxi), China. All the samples were collected according to the criteria for selection as follows: their ancestors within three generations should be unrelated individuals and members of Han ethnic group, with no migration. All volunteers without diseases signed informed consents. The present study followed the human rights and the ethical principle of Xinjiang Medical University and approved by institutional ethics committee, Xinjiang medical university, China. Genomic DNA was extracted using the Chelex-100 method as described by Walsh et al \[[@R47]\].

Multiplex amplification and STR genotyping {#s3_2}
------------------------------------------

The 25 STR loci (D3S1358, D13S317, D7S820, D16S539, D19S433, DYS635, DYS456, TPOX, TH01, D2S1338, CSF1PO, DYS385a,b, DYS458, DYS391, vWA, D5S818, FGA, DYS392, DYS390, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, DYS393 and DYS438) and Amelogenin locus were co-amplified in a new single multiplex reaction in a 25μL PCR reaction volume using the Expressmarker 16+10Y fluorescence amplification reagents (AGCU ScienTech Incorporation, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China), according to the manufacturer\'s instructions. DNA samples were amplified on a GeneAmp PCR System 9700 Thermal Cycler (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) following the manufacturer\'s instructions.

Electrophoresis was performed using an ABI 3130 Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). Fragment sizing was supported using the AGCU Marker SIZ-500 (AGCU ScienTech Incorporation, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China) internal size standard and allelic ladder as basis for comparison. Alleles were identified using the GeneMapper® ID V3.2 (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). The 9948 cell-line (Promega, Madison, WI, USA) DNA was also genotyped using the reagent as control.

Statistical analysis {#s3_3}
--------------------

Fifteen autosomal STRs were statistically analyzed as follows. We calculated the allelic frequencies and tested the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium using the modified powerstat v1.2 spreadsheet \[[@R48]\]. The linkage disequilibrium of autosomal STRs was analyzed by Genepop v4.0.10 (<http://genepop.curtin.edu.au/>). The pairwise Fst and *p* values between the studied Han population and reference populations at 15 overlapping autosomal STR loci were estimated by the program ARLEQUIN v3.1 (<http://cmpg.unibe.ch/software/arlequin3>). Principal component analysis was performed with MVSP 3.1 (<http://www.kovcomp.com>) based on allelic frequencies of 15 overlapping autosomal STR loci, which was used to explore the extent of correlation genetic relationships. Neighbor-joining tree based on allelic frequencies of 15 overlapping autosomal STR loci were calculated using the Phylip-3.69 Software (<http://evolution.gs.washington.edu/phylip.html>). Based on the 10 overlapping Y-STR loci, another NJ tree was obtained by Phylip-3.69 Software (<http://evolution.gs.washington.edu/phylip.html>). Multidimensional scaling analysis of Y-STR based on *Rst* values was constructed by statistical software SPSS version 13.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Gene diversity and haplotype diversity were calculated using Nei\'s formula \[[@R49]\].

CONCLUSION {#s4}
==========

In summary, the results demonstrated high genetic diversities of the 15 autosomal STR loci and 10 Y-STR loci in the Southern Shaanxi Han population and the studied polymorphic markers were suitable for forensic DNA cases, which could offer a new tool for forensic investigation. In this study, 15 autosome and 10 Y chromosome STR loci were amplified by the multi-color fluorescence technique in a single PCR reaction, and genotyping profile of both autosomal STR and Y chromosome STR loci could be obtained simultaneously. This made it possible for forensic geneticists to get the information of personal identification, gender determination and pedigree investigation in one step, which is a time, labor and cost saving strategy. The results of population differentiation, principal component analysis, multidimensional scaling analysis and phylogenic analysis indicated the Southern Shaanxi Han population had closer genetic relationship with the Eastern Han population and more distant relationships with populations from other races. The present data which combined autosomal STR loci and Y-STR loci will be useful for the enrichment of Chinese genetic information resources and provide valuable forensic data for forensic DNA cases.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS FIGURES AND TABLES {#s5}
==========================================

**Authors' contributions**

B.Z. and L.Z. designed the study. X.J., T.M. and J.L. provided human blood samples. Y.W., Y.G. and H.M. conducted the data processing and performed statistical analyses. Y.L. and J.C. wrote the main manuscript text. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 81525015 and 81460286). The authors would like to thank Jiangwei Yan for helping us to analysis data.

**CONFLICTS OF INTEREST**

The authors state that they have no conflicts of interest.

HWE

:   Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium

LD

:   linkage disequilibrium

MP

:   matching probability

PD

:   power of discrimination

PIC

:   polymorphism information content

PE

:   probability of exclusion

TPI

:   typical paternity index

Ho

:   observed heterozygosity

He

:   expected heterozygosity

*p*

:   probability values of exact tests for Hardy--Weinberg equilibrium

NJ tree

:   neighbor-joining tree

PCA

:   principal component analysis

GD

:   Gene diversity

HD

:   haplotype diversity

DC

:   discriminatory capacity

MDS

:   Multidimensional scaling analysis.

[^1]: The first two authors were equal to this article

[^2]: These authors have contributed equally to this work and were co-corresponding authors
